This project seeks to establish a research network to discuss the ongoing processes of indigenous re-emergence in South America and beyond, and develop innovative concepts to meet the expectations of this rapidly evolving socio-political environment. The network will be built through two interdisciplinary workshops exploring conceptual and methodological issues, looking at how scholarly frameworks affect, as much as they are affected by, the politics and the lived experience of cultural heritage. Two research organisations will host the workshops: the Archaeology Institute and Museum at the National University of Tucumán (Argentina) in April 2011, and the Archaeology Department at Exeter University in September 2011. Funds are requested for 14 months to organise and carry out the workshops, develop the network discussions, and generate the outputs.\n\nIt has become increasingly evident that scholarly practices are embedded in the processes they seek to understand. Cultural politics have increasingly challenged the traditional roles of academic scholarship in the last decades, a situation that has prompted the development of ethically aware and culturally sensitive innovative research practices worldwide. In South America and NW Argentina in particular, valuable efforts by individuals and small research teams have resulted in promising results, yet their long-term impact is at risk due to the absence of interdisciplinary dialogue and the relative marginality from the global networks that channel ideas and resources. There is therefore a pressing need to insert the region within a broader context within the international flow of resources and information. Local experiences and approaches can inform academic practice and policy-making beyond its boundaries, as much as they can benefit from insights drawn from comparable contexts. The workshops will gather specialists in a variety of disciplines (archaeology, socio-cultural anthropology, history, cultural and linguistic studies), whose expertise includes research settings as different as the UK, South America, USA, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. The participants share a common research interest in identity, material culture, and the socio-politics of research, maximising the potential for mutually beneficial synergies. The wide range of empirical and theoretical vantage points will foster novel creative thinking and analysis. \n\nWhile broad in scope and potentially relevant for a variety of contexts, this exploration will be tied to very practical matters. Participants from the University of Tucumán collaborate with the Quilmes indigenous community (NW Argentina). Important advances have been achieved, despite being primarily based on fluctuating material and conceptual support. Partly due to these efforts, the Quilmes community has recently regained full management of their iconic archaeological site, the largest archaeological site in Argentina and one of the focal points of native resistance against the Spanish in the 16th century. The project thus aims first at providing an academic space for discussion and knowledge development within a community-oriented setting. This will in turn be a platform to catalyse a sustainable future collaboration with this community. The insight gained through the interactions with UK and other experts will be invaluable for this purpose. The results of the project will be disseminated in a high-ranked refereed journal article, providing an exemplary case study and discussing new pathways for good research practice. The design of a project website and a community-oriented brochure will assist in the flow of communication between the involved academics, and between them and the indigenous stakeholders.\n

This proposal is for a 6 month partnership and project development catalyst project to build an interdisciplinary research and partner consortium that will involve and support some of the most marginalised peoples in their countries and internationally. Indigenous peoples are amongst the most disadvantaged peoples internationally. Yet these peoples are also the guardians of some of the most important ecosystems of the planet. Amazonia is one of Earth's most precious ecosystems. As the Amazonian forest reaches the Andes it merges with a contiguous and equally important biosphere: the Yungas (or Cloud Forest). These two sister forest ecosystems are amongst the most biodiverse regions of the world, spanning several Latin American countries including Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia. Together, across these four countries, these ecosystems span more than 6 million square kilometers, roughly 25 times the size of the UK. For millennia, spanning modern geopolitical boundaries, over 400 different indigenous peoples have protected Amazonia and the Yungas. In turn Amazonia and the Yungas have provided health and well-being for these indigenous peoples via food, medicines, home, culture, and natural resources. These forest biospheres also provide the world with some of its most important ecosystem services in terms of forest and food resources, current and potential new medicines, rainfall regulation and a global carbon sink. Internationally, there is an urgent need to improve understanding of the importance of biodiversity for human health and well-being particularly for communities directly dependent on biodiverse ecosystems. The need is especially urgent in this fragile and vital region, home to such interdependent biological and cultural diversity, and currently under major threat from exogenous forces such as deforestation, resource extraction and climate change. This proposal is for a 6-month grant to develop a major partnership and research consortium to lead and manage an Amazonia-Yungas Observatory on Biodiversity and Indigenous Health and Wellbeing. Such an observatory will provide vital evidence on the links of biodiversity and indigenous health and well-being in the region and internationally, and will be a major evidence base for decision-makers and indigenous and environmental stakeholder groups. This proposal is led by international and regional scientists from Argentina, Peru, Brazil, the UK and Canada who form an initial interdisciplinary team of biologists, social and environmental epidemiologists, anthropologists, veterinary scientists and social scientists working with a diverse group of local, regional and international actors including ecological foundations and indigenous associations, and international agencies. If awarded, we place a major emphasis on development of partners who will support and guide the Observatory and who will be major users of the Observatory in the longer term. Aims: 1. To develop a multi-disciplinary South-South-North research consortium to propose, then lead and run a Yungas-Amazonia Observatory on Biodiversity and Indigenous Health and Well-being 2. To develop a multi-stakeholder network of partner organisations committed to develop, support, promote and use findings of the Yungas-Amazonia Observatory on Biodiversity and Indigenous Health and Well-being Specific Objectives: a. To review existing evidence on links of biodiversity and indigenous health in the Yungas and Amazonia. b. To hold a regional workshop with both partner organisations and members of the proposed research consortium to discuss and develop a major interdisciplinary proposal for a 5 year Yungas-Amazonia Observatory on Biodiversity and Indigenous Health and Well-being. c. To produce a proposal for the Yungas-Amazonia Observatory including research team and methods; partner organisations; impact plan; environmental offsetting plan; and beneficiary and uptake plan.

The main objective of the PONCHO project is to encourage the process of internationalization of Latin American Universities partners in the project, with special focus on the Universities of peripheral areas of the region, whose geographical position or the volume of students have been unable to develop their internationalization in the same way as capital universities or major universities in the region. The PONCHO consortium is then composed mainly with universities having no experience in project of capacity building (former Alfa) and only 4 Latin American institutions have experience: Asuncion, Goias, San Simon and Nacional del Sur. Hence the exchange of good practices from the more experienced partners to the not so experienced partners is highly valued in order to increase, not only EU-Third country cooperation, but also Third country-Third country cooperation.To develop its objectives, PONCHO will work at three levels: at technical level: through the training of the IROs staff; at academic and students level: through the organization of Info days and Students Camp where academics and students will receive training and awareness session to approach them to internationalization, intercultural and integration using non-formal training tools; and finally at institutional level: through an online platform and the organisation of International Fair where the institution will be able to develop on one side their support process for a good internationalization and on the other side, through international marketing and network, to increase their international presence. The focus of active participation and collaborative decision making of the project will be implemented in the preparation, management, dissemination and optimization and quality control and through the PONCHO platform the consortium will not only be able to work together but also to develop new collaborations with other universities of the region.