The International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Technical Cooperation Group is sponsoring a fellowship for Juan Chin Pampillo at Bika Lab Systems in Cape Town, South Africa from 12 to  23 May 2008

Juan will be trained on the installation, implementation and use of Bika LIMS 2 Inkosi, new release of popular open source LIMS Bika. Juan is tasked with implementation of Bika LIMS 2 at the Centro de Investigacion en Contaminacion Ambiental, CICA, at the University of Costa Rica

CICA environmental laboratories, many of which are ISO 17025-2005 accredited, perform pesticide residue and contaminant analysis on food, water and air in Latin America. The Bika training will be relevant to the integrated assessment of pesticide management practices, sampling design, field monitoring, laboratory assays and pesticide mitigation strategies

Bika LIMS will be used in a variety of projects including Project RLA/5/050, 'Strengthening laboratory capacity to assess the implementation of good agricultural practices in the production of fruit and vegetables in Latin America'. The project involves IAEA member countries Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador and Uruguay

Juan Chin Pampillo will pilot Bika LIMS 2 implementations, analysing CICA's work flow and quality control structure and using information to recommend improvements for CICA and other regional laboratories

He will also review CICA's existing working instructions to determine where efficiency gains can be made, including furthering the Spanish user interface of the LIMS  in conjunction with other Bika users, including Luis Diego Espinoza at the University of Costa Rica. Juan will develop a training programme for further implementations and use

IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency www.iaea.org

The IAEA, with its head quarters in Vienna, is the world´s centre of cooperation in the nuclear field. It was set up as the "Atoms for Peace" organization in 1957 as part of the United Nations family. The Agency works with its Member States and multiple partners worldwide to promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies

Technical Cooperation Group www-tc.iaea.org

IAEA at Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAEA

CICA -Centro de Investigacion en Contaminacion Ambiental. www.cica.ucr.ac.cr

The CICA was formed in 1982, is a centre for scientific investigation, dedicated to the study of environmental contamination, its causes and effects on humans, animals, plants, feed and physical surroundings

Bika Lab Systems. www.bikalabs.com

Bika Lab Systems is a professional open source service provider for the range of Bika laboratory related software solutions. Bika Lab Systems is based in Cape Town, South Africa

Bika LIMS 2 Inkosi www.bikalabs.com/softwarecenter/bika/releases/2.0