CROS is interested in helping to connect the research community in the Californias, especially in the San Diego-Tijuana border region where there are a large number of universities within a 30 mile radius of the border, most notably UCSD. While there are already many projects along the border where labs and researchers are collaborating, we think there is potential to connect more labs working in the same areas and similar projects on different sides of the border and also develop more infrastructure that uses the advantages of each side to complement the other side´s strengths.
While all of CROS's projects are based on the idea of mutual respect between U.S. and Mexican counterparts and we do our best to distance ourselves from the idea of traditional charity relationships, there are rural areas in which Mexico remains a third world country. We would like to highlight this asymmetry as an advantage for researchers in the Californias to test applications for projects in places with similar conditions while saving costs on extensive travel.
We are also aware of the argument that there are pockets in Los Angeles and other parts of California that match the criteria to be designated third world as well, although mostly within an urban setting and we encourage debate on how the Californias can best complement each other in research and technology development.
