After four days of hard working, the XI Red POP meeting ended with a Uruguayan party. Some local musicians played the candombe – a traditional rhythm from Uruguay – and people enjoyed food and wine at Ciência Viva, a science centre from Montevideo.
The party also included the distribution of RedPOP awards in the categories “institution” and “individuals”, for the contribution in the period 2007 and 2008. The institutional winners were the “Programa Ondas”, from Colombia, and “Nanoaventura”, from Brazil.
“Programa Ondas” is a project with science communication materials that travel around Colombia. Linked to the Colombian Institute for the Development of Science and Technology “Francisco José de Caldas” (Colciencias), it has already had a million children participating, and thousands of teachers. “Nanoaventura” is an initiative from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and communicates nanotechnology themes in an innovative way. The project was a fisrt step for the construction of a science centre at Unicamp.
The individual prize was destinated to Joaquín Fargas, from Exploratorio, in San Isidro, Argentina.
The coordinator of RedPOP, Alejandra León Castellá, was very happy about the meeting. “Our meeting was really successful”, she told to SciDev.Net.
Catarina Chagas, SciDev.Net
