(R-L) H. E. Fabrizio Nicoletti, Ambassador of Italy to Buenos Aires, Dr. Paula Zingoni, ICGEB Appointed Governor for Argentina, Dr. Lawrence Banks, ICGEB Director-General, Ms. Raffaella Agosti, Assistant to the Director-General
March 2026, ICGEB Director-General Lawrence Banks visits partner institutes and authorities in Argentina and Uruguay.
The mission focused on high-level institutional meetings and impactful ICGEB workshops to reach the wider scientific audience in the two Member States.
In Montevideo, Uruguay, Dr. Banks met with Mr. David González, National Secretary of Science and Knowledge Valorisation, and visited the National Research and Innovation Agency ANII, where he met with ANII President, Mr. Alvaro Brunini. New avenues were explored to enhance collaboration with ICGEB in the biotechnology industrial sector. Dr. Banks commented that the biotechnology industrial sector in Uruguay is a rapidly growing, highly specialised ecosystem, strongly supported by ANII.
Dr. Banks held Awareness Workshops in both countries, to outline funding opportunities for scientists. At PEDEClBA, Dr. Sonia Rodriguez Giordano, ICGEB Appointed Governor and Liaison Officer for Uruguay, also provided valuable input to ensure the success of applications to the ICGEB programmes.
Dr. Banks presented a scientific seminar at the Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de la República de Uruguay (UDELAR), to share insights from the latest findings in HPV research by the Tumour Virology Group in Trieste.
“Meeting H.E. Fabrizio Petri, Ambassador of Italy to Uruguay and H.E. Fabrizio Nicoletti, Ambassador of Italy to Argentina, has really broadened the scope for interactions with national and international stakeholders”, commented Dr. Banks.
Together with Ms. Raffaella Agosti, Personal Assistant to the Director-General, Dr. Banks met with Dr. Paula Zingoni, National Director of Institutional Articulation of the Secretariat for Science and Technology, and ICGEB Appointed Governor for Argentina, and Lic. Leonardo Palladino, Director of Strategic Programmes, ICGEB Scientific Liaison Officer. The delegation also met with Lic. José Luis Acevedo, Undersecretary for Science and Technology, and Dr. Eleonora Campos, Director, CABBIO – CONICET.
“Meeting with the national authorities revamps relations, aligns ICGEB activities with national strategic priorities, and provides scope for joint activities and initiatives,” states Dr. Banks, who also delivered a Workshop on Cooperation and Technology Transfer at the Leloir Institute of Biochemistry Research, CONICET.
At the Institute of Physiology, Molecular Biology and Neurosciences IFIBYNE-UBA-CONICET, he met with Dr. Federico Ariel, winner of the 2025 ICGEB CRP Grant Prize for his exceptional work on “Long noncoding RNAs as non-transgenic biotechnological tools for acclimatisation of vegetable crops.”
