InSTEC

With the propose of recognition and diffusion of the critical thought about the most urgent problems and challenges of the contemporary world, since the anticolonial and anti-imperialists points of view that help to articulate a liberating politic, economic and legal theory engaged with the most important environmental issues and against the devastating effects of the capitalist system in the spiritual and material life, the Cuban Ministry of Culture, the Cuban Institute of Books and the publishing house Nuevo Milenio announce the XIII contest of the Prize Pensar a Contracorriente.

In the big circuits of hegemonic reproduction and social and intellectual domination, the emancipating thought is silenced and marginalized; like an alternative to that, and en response to the enormous challenges that the destruction of the environment impose to the human race, the contest Pensar a Contracorriente and the special contest Una especie en Peligro aspire to contribute to the development of ideas, analysis and active propositions in the Social Sciences, the Culture and the Exact Sciences. The contests pretend to arouse a diversity of points of view and approaches, and also a confrontation with the hegemonics systems of thought in the new international politics.

1.  Citizens of any country can participate in these contests with an essay written in Spanish, Portuguese, English, French (o translated to one of these languages), not compromised with another publishing house and not prized in another contests.

2. The length of the essay has to be between 20 and 40 pages of 1 800 characters (30 lines of 60 characters), with a totality between 36 000 and 72 000 characters.

3. The bibliography and the footnotes have to provide all the elements correctly ordered.

4. The contests do not accept more than one essay of each author.

5. The essays have to be mailed before the January 15 of 2016 in attached document (preferably .rtf, .doc, or odt), in one copy and one message correctly identified with the names and surnames of the author, his age, identity card, the actual address, country, and a synthesis of the curriculum vitae, to the electronic address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The coordinator of the contests will confirm to the author the reception of his work and notify the participation of his text in the contest.

6. A prestigious international jury will evaluate the essays without knowing the names, surnames and the citizenship of its authors.

7. The prize will consist of a diploma and 1 000.00 Euros (for the Cuban participants, this quantity will be converted in CUC).

8.  The Jury will concede identical diploma and prize to an essay of the contest Una especie en peligro, in its 4^th edition, the best in approach the dangers and consequences of the ecological crisis generated by the capitalist way of production and in formulate and analyze concrete propositions of anti-capitalists alternatives of development in harmony with the Nature.

9. The Jury can concede up to 10 mentions in the two contests without monetary retribution.

10. The publishing house Nuevo Milenio, in its seal Ciencias Sociales, will publish a book with the prized and distinguished essays. The Cuban Institute of Books reserves the rights of their first edition during a year since the closing of the announcement, without any retribution of Author Rights.

11. The Jury´s decision, unappealable, will be announced in February of 2016, in a Special Ceremony during the International Fair of Books of Cuba.

12.  The participation in the contests implies the acceptations of these conditions.

Office Prize Pensar a Contracorriente, publishing house Nuevo Milenio, Cuba.

Updates Conventions

 Letters of Intent

Pablo Cantero of the CNEA demonstrates to university professors how the Internet Reactor Laboratory project will work, Bariloche, 21 September 2015. (Photo: CNEA)

As part of the IAEA’s Internet Reactor Laboratory (IRL) project, the Argentinian RA-6 research reactor is ready to transmit experiments to students in other countries who otherwise would not have such access to reactor technology.

An orientation workshop held late last month marked the end of the development phase of the project, under which the RA-6 research reactor of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) at the Centro Atómico Bariloche (CAB) will serve as the hub for the IRL in Latin America. Institutions from the region will be able to participate in remote reactor experiments starting in 2016.

Nuclear education and training is an indispensable aspect of human resource development, which the IAEA supports through IAEA regular budget, extrabudgetary contributions (Peaceful Use Initiative funds provided by the USA Department of State) and technical cooperation programmes. The IRL will give access to practical research reactor experiments to institutions in states without research reactor facilities, thus enhancing academic education in nuclear engineering and physics.

The IRL project in Latin America was called for in an agreement between the IAEA and CNEA that promotes the utilization of research reactors for nuclear education in the region. The workshop conducted in Bariloche from 21 to 25 September provided training for professors that will be conducting the remote experiments at their universities. Participants also shared information on the academic curricula of the participating institutions and best practices for remote experiments to be integrated in the curricula.

"Beginning in 2016, we plan to conduct six virtual experiments per year with guest universities," said Pablo Cantero, responsible for this project at the CNEA.

Institutions interested in participating in the IRL project in Latin America include the National Polytechnic School in Ecuador, the National University of Colombia, the Higher University of San Andrés in Bolivia, the Higher Institute of Technologies and Applied Sciences in Cuba, the University of the Basque Country and the Polytechnic University of Madrid in Spain.

- By Lenka Kollar and Judy Vyshniauskas, IAEA Department of Nuclear Energy