Scientific and technological cooperation in the agri-food sector: the case of the cyted program

The Latin American Program of Science and Technology for Development (Spanish acronym: CYTED) was created in 1984 by an interinstitutional agreement signed by 19 countries in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. CYTED is an international program that promotes scientific and technological cooperation with the objective of contributing to the harmonic development of the Latin American region by promoting cooperation among research groups from universities, research centers and innovative companies in Iberoamerican countries, in order to attain transferable scientific and technological results from productive systems and social policies. The CYTED program is organized according to a decentralized model, and its structure has a dual framework: institutional and functional. The institutional frame comprises the bodies responsible for the scientific and technological policies of the 21 participant countries, called the Signatory Bodies of the Program. Each body is responsible for the management of the program at national levels, and the manage-ment and coordination of the activities is directed by the General Secretariat of the program.