On Tuesday, May 2, the SARAS Institute had the honour of receiving the visit of the Swedish Minister for Public Administration, Ardalan Shekarabi, together with an official delegation.

The main reason for the meeting was to explore lines of cooperation between Sweden and Uruguay, and other actions with regional scope. The initiative was promoted by researchers from the Stockholm Resilience Center, sister institution of SARAS, and an important cooperation partner in many lines of work on the analysis of the dynamics and management of socio-ecological systems.

Working group participants from Uruguay were: Néstor Mazzeo, Mariana Merhoff, Cristina Zurbrigen and Manfred Steffen(SARAS Institute), Alejandro Nario (National Director of Environment – Ministry of Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment), Juan Cristina (Dean of the School of Science – University of the Republic),Cecilia Jones (Coordinator of the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change for Agriculture – Ministry of Livestock Agriculture and Fisheries), Sergio Della Valle (Representante del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) and Verónica Suarez (Member of the Cooperation Unit of the ANII).

The Swedish delegation was composed of: Ardalan Shekarabi (Swedish Minister for Public Administration), Barbro Elm (Ambassador), Ingemar Cederberg (Minister Counsellor of the Swedish Embassy in Buenos Aires), John Christian Schandy (General Consul of Sweden in Uruguay), Alejandro Firpo (Undersecretary of the Minister),Peter Skeppström (Press Secretary), Anders Wollter (Minister Counsellor), Julia Ekstedt (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Director for Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina) and Johana Noder (Desk Officer).

During the meeting a presentation was made by our Director of Science, Nestor Mazzeo, on existing and future academic interactions and main lines of work.

As a result, concrete actions were established to advance in academic cooperation between the two countries. The Swedish delegation expressed its interest in moving forward along these lines and to support postgraduate scholarships in their country.