On the 8th September 2016, SRAP organised a large Research Bites event joining researchers to explore several topics on bridging and collaboration in research, innovation and change between Australia and the Ibero-American countries. The event hosted 57 participants, out of which 11 presented briefly their research topic. Each of the presentations included a couple of minutes on how they ended undertaking research in Sydney, Australia. In the audience we had the pleasure of having the Colombian, Spanish and Portuguese consuls. The event was open by the director of El Instituto Cervantes, Victor Ugarte, followed by Sergio Leon Saval SRAP’s current president. The keynote speaker was Dr Ren Yi, Director of Higher Degree Research Office at Macquarie University.
Maria Gomez, one of SRAP’s members and the coordinator of the event kept introducing the 11 speakers lined up for the Ibero-American Research Bites. The following researcher presented on the day: 1)Rodrigo Acuna, Associate lecturer from the Spanish and Latin American Studies (Macquarie University); 2) Romina Cayumil, Metallurgical Engineer, Centre for Sustainable Materials research and Technology (UNSW); 3) Maria Comas, Postdoc fellow, Central Clinical School, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research (University of Sydney); 4) Eva Fernandez, PhD student, Climate Change Cluster (UTS) working on chemical properties of toxic algae; 5) Sonia Garcia, PhD student, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (UTS) working on policies of Australian fisheries; 6)Liliana Laranjo, Postdoc Research fellow, Australian Institute of Health Innovation (Macquarie University); 7) Juan Navarro, Lawyer and organ donation and transplantation environmental policy, VELIM (University of Sydney); 8) Laura Ospina Pinillos, researcher at Brain and Mind Centre (University of Sydney); 9) Fernanda Penaloza. Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (University of Sydney); 10) Michael Perdices, neuropsychologist, Department of Neurology, Royal North Shore Hospital, University of Sydney Medical School; 11) David Silvera-Tawil, Postdoc fellow, Creative Robotics Laboratory, National Institute for Experimental Arts (CSIRO).
At the end of the event most participants decided to follow the networking having dinner in a close by pub. Many thanks to all who made this event to be such great success!