ARGENTINA'S SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MINISTER WANTS

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000273 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR WHA/BSC OES/SAT FOR FERNANDO ECHAVARRIA OES/SCT FOR TAMARA SCOTT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TSPL TSPA SCUL PREL AR SUBJECT: ARGENTINA'S SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MINISTER WANTS TO INCREASE COOPERATION WITH THE U.S. ¶1. (U) This telegram is sensitive but unclassified, and not for Internet distribution. -------------- Summary -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Argentine Minister of Science and Technology Lino Baranao told Ambassador Wayne February 29 that he would like to develop new bilateral initiatives. Baranao hopes to work with U.S. scientific entities, both public and private, to fund joint projects in the pursuit of common goals. He has begun talks with several U.S. universities to that end. One of Baranao's most ambitious priorities is to change Argentina's basic scientific culture. He hopes to move from a culture extolling pure research to one that is more practical and entrepreneur-oriented. Baranao spent over three years in the U.S., and appears well-disposed toward us. End Summary. -------------- -------------- Moving Forward with the Bilateral S&T Relationship -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) Ambassador Wayne met February 29 with Lino Baranao, Argentina's first Minister of Science, Technology, and Productive Innovation. Baranao began the meeting by explaining that he hopes to use his new ministry -- which came into existence December 10, 2007, upon Baranao's swearing in -- to move the bilateral science and technology (S&T) relationship beyond traditional instruments such as research exchanges. Instead, he is hoping to establish "common projects, funded by both sides, but with a single goal." To that end, Baranao said that his ministry has begun talks with the Universities of Maryland, Illinois, Arizona, and Miami with the goal of conducting joint research and developing student exchange programs. ¶4. (U) As an example of what he wishes to achieve, Baranao mentioned an agreement he had signed in November 2007 with the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, a German non-profit research organization, to establish a Max Planck institute in Argentina. Citing an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study showing that students with international experience perform better, Baranao noted the benefits to both sides of increasing student exchanges. The ambassador agreed, and told Baranao that the Embassy would support that effort. �A; -------------- Changing a Culture -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Baranao expressed admiration for the ability of U.S. scientists and research institutions to capitalize on their ideas. He noted that his ministry is partnering with the World Bank in a three-pronged approach to promote innovation in Argentina. The idea is to establish a pool of seed capital for startup high-tech companies; create physical space for such companies within relevant public institutions; and train a cadre of "technology managers," or individuals who understand both science and money, and are therefore well-placed to turn ideas into businesses. The goal, Baranao continued, is to change a national scientific culture that still finds something discreditable about turning research into profit. Instead, Baranao said, he is trying to inculcate the feeling that "publicly-funded researchers have a moral obligation to make money" to generate jobs and repay the taxpayer. ¶6. (SBU) Baranao did not say whether any monies had yet been committed to the startup capital fund, but the GOA is clearly taking steps to improve Argentina's scientific physical plant. President Fernandez de Kirchner, flanked by Baranao, made a televised appearance February 28 to announce a new Science and Technology Infrastructure Plan. That plan mandates spending USD 150 million over the next four years on construction and improvement of the Argentine scientific establishment's offices and laboratories throughout the country. (Comment: That money will go a long way toward making Argentina's long-neglected scientific infrastructure more hospitable. End Comment.) ¶7. (SBU) The ambassador mentioned a roundtable discussion with Minister of Planning De Vido in May 2007, to which the ambassador invited a number of U.S.-based high-tech companies. The rationale of that event was to allow those companies to pass to De Vido their ideas about how they could best effect research partnerships with Argentines. The ambassador suggested that a similar meeting, possibly involving both Baranao and Economy Minister Martin Lousteau, could be useful. Baranao appeared enthusiastic about the idea. -------------- -------------- Intellectual Property Protection: On the Same Page -------------- -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Baranao observed that some multinational research-based pharmaceutical companies are beginning to fund research and development activity in Argentina. Ambassador Wayne acknowledged the phenomenon, but pointed out that the approximately USD 50 million that U.S. research-based pharmaceutical companies are spending each year in Argentina goes primarily toward funding clinical trials, and not toward research and development, due to inadequacies in Argentina's intellectual property protection regime. ¶9. (SBU) Baranao agreed, saying Argentina "has some problems" with IPR protections. He described a case in which an Argentine biotech firm applied contemporaneously for patents in the U.S. and Argentina. The U.S. patent was granted two years later, and was eventually sold for a significant sum. Even after that sale, the Argentine patent was still pending. Such a system, Baranao continued, clearly needs some work. Baranao referred to another IDB study that he said analyzed scientific papers authored by researchers from developing nations. Of the two hundred-plus patents derived from those papers, none went to the papers' authors or countries. Without a better utilization of IPR protections, Baranao continued, Argentina will continue to export both the knowledge of its scientists and any potential monetary gains from that knowledge. When the ambassador explained that some U.S. universities have their own patent bureaucracies, Baranao commented that he would like to begin something similar at Argentine universities. -------------- Argentine Successes -------------- ¶10. (U) The ambassador praised the GOA's INNOVAR program, an online, paperless innovation competition. Baranao agreed that the idea of the competition is good, but admitted that it had been difficult thus far to turn some of the most promising ideas into functioning companies. The ambassador mentioned a visit to Argentine high-tech service provider Globant, which has managed to secure around USD 500 million in venture capital from U.S. sources, to illustrate that Argentines can make the leap. Baranao named Core Security Technologies, a company begun by young Argentine computer programmers that now employs around two hundred people in the U.S. and Argentina, as another example of the entrepreneurial spirit he is trying to encourage. -------------- Our Bilateral S&T Agenda: Next Steps -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Baranao responded positively to a suggestion that his ministry work together with the Embassy on an exchange program on tertiary education for S&T. Specifically, the USG would host a multidisciplinary group of curriculum decision-makers from Argentina's top universities and institutes, who ould travel to the U.S. to learn how selected U.S. universities are arranging their S&T curricula. The ambassador also suggested cooperating to expand the use of the Fulbright program to increase the number of Argentine S&T doctoral students in the U.S. We will also work to arrange a roundtable with U.S. high-tech firms and Minister Baranao. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Baranao, who has a PhD in Chemical Sciences, has spent over three years in the U.S. (at the National Institutes of Health and at Penn State's M.S. Hershey Medical Centre). The experience appears to have left him well-disposed toward the United States. Indeed, his principal objective models change in the culture of Argentina's scientific establishment on that of our own country. Our S&T cooperation has been a consistent positive in a sometimes tumultuous bilateral relationship, and we look forward to working closely with Baranao to strengthen that cooperation. WAYNE