On 24 and 25 November, 2026 the Fifth meeting of the Conference on Science, Innovation, and Information and Communication Technologies of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will be held in Brasilia, Brazil, with the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Brazil as host. The meeting will include the participation of officials from Latin America and the Caribbean and representatives from international organizations.

At the event, ECLAC will present its position document titled Science, Technology and Innovation Policies for Sustainable and Inclusive Productive Development: Challenges, Regional Coordination and Guidelines for 2027–2028.

The document proposes that the productive transformation the region needs requires science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies articulated with productive development policies and other strategic areas. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish concrete priorities, capable institutions, and effective implementation mechanisms. This articulation becomes especially important in the current geopolitical context, in which competition between central powers for leadership in specific industries and technologies reinforces the need for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to identify sectoral priorities and technologies and leverage their productive capacities. Regional coordination and cooperation are central to these efforts.

The document includes a special chapter dedicated to analyzing regional cooperation architecture regarding STI. Various intergovernmental forums, subregional mechanisms, Iberoamerican programs, bi-regional spaces, organization networks, information infrastructures, and multi-actor platforms coexist in the region.

During the meeting, a new Executive Committee will be selected, and the lines of work and areas of cooperation that will make up the regional agenda for the 2027-2028 period will be defined.

The agenda centers of five themed panels on STI governance; articulation of the academic sector and businesses; bringing lagging businesses to the technological frontier; innovation from territories; and the future of regional STI agendas.

Since 2012, the Conference on Science, Innovation, and Information and Communication Technologies is the main permanent space for political and technical dialogue among high-level authorities and science, technology, and innovation policymakers, with the goal of exchanging knowledge and coordinating actions regarding issues of mutual interest and improving the quality and effectiveness of these policies.