Politecnico flies to Costa Rica and Ecuador

Professor Roberto Zanino, the Rector’s Senior Advisor for International University Networks and for the European University Alliance Unite!, and current President of the Magalhaes international university network, has just returned from Ecuador and Costa Rica, where he visited the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), and the Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC), also meeting with the Italian ambassadors in both countries.

The Magalhaes Network currently consists of 21 members on each side of the Atlantic. Since Politecnico assumed the presidency - more than three years ago now- it fostered the policy aimed at a moderate and controlled increase in membership toward the 25-member cap set forth in the new Statute. This is also because the Steering Committee has approved, among the network’s new strategic priorities, that of expanding its geographic coverage - currently, 13 European countries and 11 LAC countries are represented - while ensuring that new members demonstrate regional excellence, particularly in Engineering and Architecture, as well as highly motivated to contribute to strengthening academic relations between Europe and Latin America & the Caribbean.

The Steering Committee therefore identified Ecuador and Costa Rica as the two most promising LAC countries of those currently not represented in the network, due both to the presence of excellent universities in the sense described above and to their relative political stability, and this motivated the chosen destinations for Professor Zanino’s visit.

The first stop was USFQ, a comprehensive public university located in the Ecuadorian capital, ranked first in the country according to the QS rankings and based on the so-called liberal arts model. Professor Zanino met with Rector Diego Quiroga Ferri, who was accompanied by Eduardo Alba, dean of the School of Engineering, and Karina Cazar Recalde, dean of the School of Architecture. Following a tour of the campus —which features numerous architectural and cultural elements directly inspired by its founder, Santiago Gangotena— and a presentation on USFQ, Professor Zanino presented the Magalhaes network and its strategies for future development. The next day, Professor Zanino met with the Italian Ambassador to Quito, H.E. Giovanni Davoli, and presented the idea of university networks contributing to the organization of an EU-CELAC-MERCOSUR Academic Forum in 2027, as a satellite event to the Summit of Heads of State and Government scheduled to take place in Brussels at the end of next year.

Professor Zanino then travelled to Costa Rica’s capital, San José, where he first visited UCR, which is also a comprehensive public university and ranks first in the country according to the QS rankings, as well as being one of the best in the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean. At UCR, Professor Zanino met the Director of International Relations, along with her colleagues Yorleni Aguilar and Adriana Fernández, the latter being responsible for relations with European universities, who introduced him to the university. He was then taken on a tour of the campus, which included, in particular, the CT Lab and the Research Centre on Atomic, Nuclear, and Molecular Sciences (CICANUM), and subsequently met the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering (soon to be Engineering and Architecture), Professor Karla Barrantes. As in Quito, Professor Zanino presented the Magalhaes network and its strategies for future development, and at the end of the day, he was invited to give a lecture on nuclear-related topics, which was very well attended by students and early-career researchers.

On the following day, Professor Zanino met with the Italian Ambassador to San José, His Excellency Alberto Colella, before travelling to nearby Cartago for a visit to TEC, where he met the Vice-President for Research and Outreach, Professor Jose Luis Leon Salazar; the Director of International Relations, Paula Ulloa; the Director of Research, Andrés Robles; and the Director of Outreach, Allan Henderson. The visit concluded with a presentation by Professor Iván Vargas, Head of the Plasma Lab, on the work that has been carried out at TEC for many years in the field of nuclear fusion.

“Ecuador and Costa Rica are looking to collaborate with Europe – and with Italy in particular – with growing interest, especially in light of the changing geopolitical context in the Americas, albeit against a backdrop of mounting concern over rising crime and the resulting decline in public safety,” commented Professor Zanino "I had the pleasure of meeting competent and passionate administrators, lecturers and researchers, who were also very interested in the impetus that a network such as Magalhaes could bring to the development of international relations at their universities, across all their missions, from education to research and innovation, and service to society. Meetings with our Ambassadors in both countries further confirmed the prominent role played in recent years by what is known as ‘scientific diplomacy’, and during those discussions I was assured of appreciation and a commitment to full support for the policy initiatives being pursued by the Magalhaes network, aimed at securing greater recognition of the role that higher education can play in strengthening relations between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. It would be wonderful if these initiatives could bring the region a little closer to the centre of our country’s interests, particularly given the extraordinarily close and deep cultural ties that bind us to it. Last but not least, I was delighted to discover that Costa Rica has a tradition in the nuclear field, both for medical applications and for fusion research. In that context, the meeting I had with a group of students confirmed once again the high standard of the institutions that so kindly welcomed me on this mission”.