PRO-IDEAL aims to promote the ICT programme in Argentina, Brazil (Sao Paulo southwards), Chile and Uruguay. These countries were selected because they represent a) powerful emerging economies on the subcontinent, b) have a similar social and industrial level of development, and thus c) are valuable potential partners for Europe.PRO-IDEAL plans a series of activities that are geared at improving the overall performance of the countries' research community in the ICT programme. The main activities consist in:* Coaching courses to "coach the coaches": This allows active knowledge transfer that creates a multiplying effect in the target region. The trained coaches will, in turn, act as "Project Angels" for their region.* Organising awareness raising and coaching events for potential partners in ICT projects, three in each target country, linked to open calls.* Reinforce the ICT policy dialogue with key stakeholders.These efforts will be supported by the PRO-IDEAL ICT promotion platform, an on-line tool based on the Web 2.0 paradigm of knowledge sharing comprising:* an ICT Wiki providing easy access to information,* Blogs displaying coaching modules for self-learning,* news feeds on events, calls, etc.The platform will be a free, permanent source of information and communication tool that will be sustained beyond project duration by its user community.The above activities are carried out by an experienced partnership that has a proven track record in successful international projects: INMARK from Spain will co-ordinate the consortium; the European Multimedia Forum disposes of the network in the ICT sector and takes care of the dissemination strategy as well as the Web 2.0 tool; the partners in the target countries will act as "hub" implementing the promotion activities at local level, using their established networks covering academic and industrial research communities, and public institutions.