Biomedical Engineering Reference
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and 30% in Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador.
In other Latin American countries, business investment was insig-
nificant (UNESCO 2009). Nanotechnology research in Latin America
suffers from the same lack of private investment, according to
researchers.
4. Fair structures of the global knowledge economy: The structures of the
global knowledge economy influence the chances that nanotechnol-
ogy development will contribute to socioeconomic development of
Latin America. However, these structures fall outside the scope of
international cooperation agreements on nanotechnology. For exam-
ple, since 1994, international and bilateral agreements on intellectual
property rights are more and more in favor of multinational compa-
nies from highly developed economies (Pacon 2009). Latin American
organizations have thus far applied for very few nanopatents. Under
these circumstances, the results of Latin American public invest-
ment in nanoscience and technology could well end up benefiting
companies from industrialized countries.
5. Access to higher education and research jobs: Cooperation agreements
between the EU and Latin America include access for Latin American
students to higher education and research jobs in Europe. However,
if this is not complemented by return grants and investment in
higher education and research infrastructure in Latin America, the
resulting brain drain will hamper the development of a knowledge
society in Latin America. This is especially bad because Latin Ameri-
can countries are not characterized by universal access to higher
education.
The percentage of all researchers in the world who work in Latin
America and the Caribbean has increased from 2.9% to 3.6% between
2002 and 2007, placing this whole region between Germany and
France. In 2007, there were 460 researchers per million inhabitants in
Latin America and the Caribbean (625 in Brazil and 464 in Mexico).
For comparison, there were 4262 researchers per million inhabitants
in Oceania, 2515 in Europe, 2013 in the Americas, 742 in Asia, and 169
in Africa. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 46% of researchers
were women, which is much better than the world average of 29%
(UNESCO 2009).
Taking a closer look at nanotechnology, the development of nano-
technology curricula in higher education in Latin America is still in
a very early stage and investment in world-class research infrastruc-
ture for doing nanotechnology research is a major problem in R&D
in most Latin American countries.
6. Target research to poverty and health-related problems: There are projects
aiming to develop nanotechnology for poverty and health-related
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