Table 1.

Towards a better understanding of the challenges ECRs-LAC face to support the development of stronger scientific systems in LAC.

Challenges/questions	Actors*	Ways forward/recommendations
Current circumstances faced per professional mobility groups	Governments, scientific societies, and ECR organizations	Studies to understand the current circumstances of ECRs-LAC and strategic plan to equal opportunity for mobility
Access and availability of higher education opportunities	Governments, scientific societies, and ECR organizations	Increase national graduate programs and create new regional graduate programs and fellowships
Repatriation/reinsertion	Governments, scientific societies, and industry or start-up incubators/stimuli	Programs that consider not only funding but also infrastructure and institutional support
Connection with the diaspora	Governments, research institutions, scientific societies, industry or start-up incubators, diaspora organizations, and ECR organizations	Science diplomacy programs to increase collaborations and exchanges taking advantage of strengths of the science from the new country of the diaspora. Agreements and funding for partnerships. Facilitate access to research facilities
Assessing the quality of ECRs-LAC research	Governments, scientific societies, and ECR organizations	Determine what the quality of research is and its scientific or societal impacts and create better research assessment to generate a more holistic view of research performance that benefits all research fields
Impact and internationalization of ECRs-LAC research	Governments, scientific societies, research institutions, ECR organizations, and international organizations	Design specific strategies for the region on open access of research (for LAC researchers to have access to international production and for LAC publications to be read globally) publication cost, international collaboration in a win-win design (no “colonial science”)
Quantification of the public policy of research in the region	ONU, CEPAL, research institutions, and Ministries of Science or relevant divisions	Assess current policies and their actual impact/value in the research systems through a science policy lens to modify existing research-related policies or create new ones accordingly

Here, the main challenges/questions of ECRs-LAC, along with the diverse actors that should be involved in addressing such challenges, and ways forward/recommendations to have a supportive research environment for ECRs are presented.

^*Examples of ECRs and diaspora organizations and networks: Global Young Academy (international ECR organization), TYAN-TWAS (international ECR network from an international scientific academy), Redes Chilenas-Chile (independent ECR network including diaspora), RAICES-Argentina (governmental agency program for diaspora), RedGlobal MX-Mexico (independent diaspora network established with governmental support).