The alliance between the School of Government and the Athens-based organization will allow for a pooling of research efforts on the impact of new technologies on global governance and parliamentarism.
The School of Government of the Universidad Austral The Hellenic OCR Team (Optical Character Recognition), an international crowdsourcing initiative dedicated to the study and processing of parliamentary text data through the use of optical character recognition technologies, artificial intelligence, and data science, is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formalize and deepen their collaboration on research, capacity building, and new technologies in the fields of global governance and parliamentarism. The agreement was signed during the first week of July by Fotis Fitsilis and Giorgos Mikros, co-founders of the initiative launched in Greece in 2017, and by Gabriel Astarloa, Alfonso Santiago, and Juan de Dios Cincunegui, representing the Hellenic OCR Team. Universidad Austral.
The MoU marks the beginning of a strategic alliance designed to address shared challenges related to democratic governance at the local, regional, national, and global levels. The agreement jointly leverages the experience and regional and global reach of the Universidad Austral, based in Buenos Aires – Argentina, and the Hellenic OCR Team, based in Athens – Greece.
Under the current agreement, the parties commit to participating in various joint activities, such as academic conferences, technical assistance, the development of digital tools, and research missions, both in-person and virtual. The agreement also includes the exchange of technical knowledge, methodologies, and, where necessary, software code to jointly promote innovation.
“We are proud to formalize this alliance with the Universidad Austral“A leading institution in Latin America,” stated Dr. Fotis Fitsilis, co-founder and leader of the OCR Hellenic team. He added, “Our shared commitment to democratic innovation and capacity building provides an excellent foundation for high-impact cooperation.”
On behalf of CIDEIPP, the Center for Parliamentary Studies of the Universidad AustralProfessor Juan de Dios Cincunegui stated: “This agreement aligns with our mission to promote an exchange of academic excellence at the international level and, in doing so, to contribute to strengthening democratic institutions in Argentina, the Latin American and Caribbean region, and the rest of the world.” He added: “We look forward to a very productive collaboration with our colleagues in Europe.”
The MoU provides a broad framework for future agreements between the parties and their affiliated institutions, allowing for flexibility and the expansion of joint initiatives. It is worth noting that both parties will work to disseminate the results obtained through press releases, conference presentations, and scientific publications.
This alliance reinforces the shared vision of both organizations to promote open, transparent and technological governance through interdisciplinary research and innovation.
