WDS, ABC, FAPESP, and RDA have now agreed that the Second LAC Workshop will be postponed until early 2021, in light of the continued COVID-19 pandemic. More details will follow soon.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, and continue to check back here for updates.

The Second LAC Workshop Scientific Organizing Committee

The website for the First Latin America and the Caribbean Scientific Data Management Workshop may be found here.


Workshop Scope

We invite

  • Managers, researchers, developers, and leaders of operational or planned research data repositories.
  • Researchers and developers of scientific data management strategies and initiatives.
  • Leaders and directors of funding and government agencies concerned with scientific data management and open data.
  • Members of ISC and other scientific associations.

to join us on 14–15 April 2020 at FAPESP in São Paulo for the Second Latin America and the Caribbean Scientific Data Management Workshop.

This Workshop is convened by the World Data System of the International Science Council (WDS), in collaboration with the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), and the Research Data Alliance (RDA). It builds on the success of the First Latin America and Caribbean Workshop in 2018 that explored the data landscape in the region to understand the opportunities and challenges, and discussed how data initiatives could be supported by WDS.

The data landscape globally is now changing rapidly, with both new technologies and concepts—such as Artificial Intelligence and the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) Principles—becoming evermore commonplace within scientific data management. In this regard, the Second Workshop will continue discussions on data management best practices for data repositories and on new trends and perspectives for scientific data systems. However, there will also be a greater emphasis on analyzing and finding concrete solutions to the technical, political, and infrastructure issues identified during the First Workshop.

One highlight if you are operating a data repository is a session on 'Best Practices towards Certification', in which you will have the opportunity to

  1. Benchmark the current status of your organizational, data management, and technical policies and process.
  2. Discuss with both your peers and data repository certification experts on practical steps to increase the maturity of these policies and processes, and thus of your repository as a whole.

Call for Abstracts

Thank you to everyone who has submitted an abstract. The online submission system is now closed. To enable people to plan their journeys, abstracts received will now be reviewed as quickly as possible and the authors notified of acceptance.

Researchers and specialists involved in scientific data management initiatives in the Latin American and the Caribbean region are encouraged to submit abstracts for short oral presentations (poster presentations are not possible at FAPESP). Abstracts must be in English and should not exceed 3000 characters—maximum 1 page of text; up to 3 pages with tables and diagrams—including a brief bio. The deadline for abstract submission is Sunday, 1 March via the EasyChair system.

Oral presentations may cover experiences, research, operations, and projects or programmes concerning a wide variety of data-related issues, with abstracts reviewed primarily for their relevance to the goals of the Workshop. In particular, the following key topics from the First Workshop remain of interest:

  • New trends and future perspectives for scientific data projects
  • Global scientific data initiatives
  • Open data and open science trends and experiences
  • Latin American and Caribbean scientific data context and experiences
  • Integration and constitution of shared platforms for research data management
  • Advantages and process of accreditation of scientific data repositories
  • Funding, training and infrastructure for scientific data services

NOTE: The authors of abstracts deemed to be of particular high quality by the Scientific Organizing Committee will be invited to write full papers to appear in the CLEI Electronic Journal (http://www2.clei.org/cleiej/).

Registration & Accommodation

Online registration is now open. The process is managed by FAPESP, who officially invite you here to join us in São Paulo.

Please see the Accommodation and Logistics pages for information on hotels and travel.

Contact Us

Please email lac-workshop [at] icsu-wds [dot] org