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Connecting Scientists Residing Abroad: A Review of Converciencia as a Practice to Engage the Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora From 2005–2020
In 2005, the Guatemala National Secretariat of Science and Technology (Senacyt) introduced Converciencia, a program designed to connect Guatemalan scientists residing abroad with their country of origin. Converciencia has been a flagship practice for over 15 years. This program involves three main g...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9271891/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35832744 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frma.2022.898496 |
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author | Bonilla, Kleinsy Arrechea, Susana Velásquez Pérez, Luis Guillermo |
author_facet | Bonilla, Kleinsy Arrechea, Susana Velásquez Pérez, Luis Guillermo |
author_sort | Bonilla, Kleinsy |
collection | PubMed |
description | In 2005, the Guatemala National Secretariat of Science and Technology (Senacyt) introduced Converciencia, a program designed to connect Guatemalan scientists residing abroad with their country of origin. Converciencia has been a flagship practice for over 15 years. This program involves three main groups of participants: (i) science and technology (S&T) policy agents, (ii) the scientific community (including parts of the Guatemala scientific diaspora, GSD), and (iii) host institutions (local co-organizers, mainly universities, and research institutes). This article presents a comprehensive and balanced overview of the Converciencia program applying an in-depth analysis of its creation, evolution, leading trends, and legacies. Using a qualitative methodology and conducting a four-level analysis (descriptive, explanatory, normative, and prescriptive) allowed for the identification of nuances of this S&T practice in the context of a scientifically lagging country such as Guatemala. The detailed data collected through documentary and desk review, gray literature, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews resulted in a framework to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOTs) in the planning, organization, implementation, monitoring, and perception of the results achieved by Converciencia. Findings portray the contrasting views and perceptions from a single S&T practice, depending on the participating parties' roles and responsibilities. Direct participants examined how Converciencia has achieved its objectives while questioning the effectiveness and impact that the resources allocated to the initiative have yielded over time. Evidence indicates that despite the design, coordination, and evaluation limits of Converciencia, the GSD, the scientific community in Guatemala, and the host institutions are interested in the continuity of the practice. Indeed, the main recommendation involves restructuring and turning Converciencia into a robust S&T policy. Converciencia as a policy engaging the GSD could produce greater results and impacts by involving all the key actors in co-designing activities, clearly determining roles and responsibilities, and establishing performance and impact indicators for evaluation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9271891 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92718912022-07-12 Connecting Scientists Residing Abroad: A Review of Converciencia as a Practice to Engage the Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora From 2005–2020 Bonilla, Kleinsy Arrechea, Susana Velásquez Pérez, Luis Guillermo Front Res Metr Anal Research Metrics and Analytics In 2005, the Guatemala National Secretariat of Science and Technology (Senacyt) introduced Converciencia, a program designed to connect Guatemalan scientists residing abroad with their country of origin. Converciencia has been a flagship practice for over 15 years. This program involves three main groups of participants: (i) science and technology (S&T) policy agents, (ii) the scientific community (including parts of the Guatemala scientific diaspora, GSD), and (iii) host institutions (local co-organizers, mainly universities, and research institutes). This article presents a comprehensive and balanced overview of the Converciencia program applying an in-depth analysis of its creation, evolution, leading trends, and legacies. Using a qualitative methodology and conducting a four-level analysis (descriptive, explanatory, normative, and prescriptive) allowed for the identification of nuances of this S&T practice in the context of a scientifically lagging country such as Guatemala. The detailed data collected through documentary and desk review, gray literature, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews resulted in a framework to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOTs) in the planning, organization, implementation, monitoring, and perception of the results achieved by Converciencia. Findings portray the contrasting views and perceptions from a single S&T practice, depending on the participating parties' roles and responsibilities. Direct participants examined how Converciencia has achieved its objectives while questioning the effectiveness and impact that the resources allocated to the initiative have yielded over time. Evidence indicates that despite the design, coordination, and evaluation limits of Converciencia, the GSD, the scientific community in Guatemala, and the host institutions are interested in the continuity of the practice. Indeed, the main recommendation involves restructuring and turning Converciencia into a robust S&T policy. Converciencia as a policy engaging the GSD could produce greater results and impacts by involving all the key actors in co-designing activities, clearly determining roles and responsibilities, and establishing performance and impact indicators for evaluation. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9271891/ /pubmed/35832744 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frma.2022.898496 Text en Copyright © 2022 Bonilla, Arrechea and Velásquez Pérez. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Research Metrics and Analytics Bonilla, Kleinsy Arrechea, Susana Velásquez Pérez, Luis Guillermo Connecting Scientists Residing Abroad: A Review of Converciencia as a Practice to Engage the Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora From 2005–2020 |
title | Connecting Scientists Residing Abroad: A Review of Converciencia as a Practice to Engage the Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora From 2005–2020 |
title_full | Connecting Scientists Residing Abroad: A Review of Converciencia as a Practice to Engage the Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora From 2005–2020 |
title_fullStr | Connecting Scientists Residing Abroad: A Review of Converciencia as a Practice to Engage the Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora From 2005–2020 |
title_full_unstemmed | Connecting Scientists Residing Abroad: A Review of Converciencia as a Practice to Engage the Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora From 2005–2020 |
title_short | Connecting Scientists Residing Abroad: A Review of Converciencia as a Practice to Engage the Guatemalan Scientific Diaspora From 2005–2020 |
title_sort | connecting scientists residing abroad: a review of converciencia as a practice to engage the guatemalan scientific diaspora from 2005–2020 |
topic | Research Metrics and Analytics |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9271891/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35832744 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frma.2022.898496 |
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