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Invasive Alien Species (IAS) threaten biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services, modify landscapes and impose costs to national economies. Management efforts are underway globally to reduce these impacts, but little attention has been paid to optimising the use of the scarce available resources when IAS are impossible to eradicate, and therefore population reduction and containment of their advance are the only feasible solutions. CONTAIN, a three-year multinational project involving partners from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the UK, started in 2019. It develops and tests, via case study examples, a decision-making toolbox for managing different problematic IAS over large spatial extents. Given that vast areas are invaded, spatial prioritisation of management is necessary, often based on sparse data. In turn, these characteristics imply the need to make the best decisions possible under likely heavy uncertainty. Our decision-support toolbox will integrate the following components: (i) the relevant environmental, social, cultural, and economic impacts, including their spatial distribution; (ii) the spatio-temporal dynamics of the target IAS (focusing on dispersal and population recovery); (iii) the relationship between the abundance of the IAS and its impacts; (iv) economic methods to estimate both benefits and costs to inform the spatial prioritisation of cost-effective interventions. To ensure that our approach is relevant for different contexts in Latin America, we are working with model species having contrasting modes of dispersal, which have large environmental and/or economic impacts, and for which data already exist (invasive pines, privet, wasps, and American mink). We will also model plausible scenarios for data-poor pine and grass species, which impact local people in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. We seek the most effective strategic management actions supported by empirical data on the species’ population dynamics and dispersal that underpin reinvasion, and on intervention costs in a spatial context. Our toolbox serves to identify key uncertainties driving the systems, and especially to highlight gaps where new data would most effectively reduce uncertainty on the best course of action. The problems we are tackling are complex, and we are embedding them in a process of co-operative adaptive management, so that both researchers and managers continually improve their effectiveness by confronting different models to data. Our project is also building research capacity in Latin America by sharing knowledge/information between countries and disciplines (i.e., biological, social and economic), by training early-career researchers through research visits, through our continuous collaboration with other researchers and by training and engaging stakeholders via workshops. Finally, all these activities will establish an international network of researchers, managers and decision-makers. We expect that our lessons learned will be of use in other regions of the world where complex and inherently context-specific realities shape how societies deal with IAS.

El agua es un fluido de proceso de mucha importancia en Tecnología Nuclear. La Unidad de Actividad Química (UAQ) ha dedicado mucho esfuerzo al estudio de sus propiedades fundamentales y de sus aplicaciones, con miras a optimizar el funcionamiento de los sistemas refrigerante, moderador y auxiliares en Centrales Nucleares. Uno de los aspectos fundamentales de estudio ha sido la necesidad de mantener agua muy pura en esos circuitos, para minimizar la corrosión de los materiales estructurales, y la incorporación de radionucleídos al agua. Esta incorporación es responsable de un incremento de las dosis ocupacionales de radiación de los trabajadores. La tecnología del agua como insumo de la industria nuclear requiere poseer capacidades en la producción y mantenimiento de agua extremadamente limpia. Dichas capacidades son las que se usan también para brindar soluciones a la provisión de agua a comunidades rurales aisladas, y a las pequeñas empresas para encontrar alternativas al tratamiento de sus efluentes. Los estudios para estos fines se han canalizado a través de una colaboración con las Universidades Nacionales de San Martín y de Tucumán. Water is a fluid process of great importance in Nuclear Technology. Chemical Activity Unit (UAQ) has devoted much effort to the study of fundamental properties and applications in order to optimize the operation of cooling systems, and auxiliary moderator in nuclear power plants. One of the fundamental aspects of this study was the need for very pure water in these circuits, to minimize corrosion of structural materials, and the incorporation of radionuclides into the water. This incorporation is responsible for increased radiation dose occupational workers. Water technology as an input of the nuclear industry, for skills, is required in the production and maintenance of water extremely clean. These capabilities are also used to provide solutions to the water supply to isolated rural communities, and small businesses to find alternatives to treat their effluents. Studies for this purpose have been channeled through a partnership with the National Universities of San Martín and Tucumán. Keywords.- Water, Nuclear industry. Fil: Navntoft, Luis Christian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Araujo, Paula Zulema. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Mendive, Cecilia Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Cicerone, Daniel. No especifica; Fil: Pizarro, R.. No especifica; Fil: Soler Illia, Galo Juan de Avila Arturo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Dawidowski, Laura Elena. No especifica; Fil: Litter, Marta Irene. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Blesa, Miguel Angel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Apella, Maria Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Hidalgo, Margarita del Valle. No especifica; Fil: Garcia, Maria Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Powell, Priscila Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Puchulu, María Bernardita. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Fernández, D.. No especifica