On July 10, the Government promulgated the regulations that establish the Science, Technology and Innovation Committees for Development. The spirit of the legislator was that the Regional Governors will have an advisory body, with technical and scientific capacity in the formulation of policies for the development of advanced human capital, research and scientific equipment, supporting innovation, development and transfer. to various public, private, social and productive sectors, among other dimensions and actors of regional development.
Those of us who have dedicated our lives to the generation of knowledge useful for regional and national development express our support for any initiative that helps strengthen knowledge and territorial scientific institutions. However, the promulgated regulation deserves observations on form and substance, as the rectors of the Regional Universities have stated in a recent statement.
To an extent that we do not share, the definition of the regulation did not consider the opinion of the regional scientific communities nor of the Regional Governors, authorities to whom they are called to advise. It imposes a single and homogeneous format, ignoring the diversity in size and specialization that territorial scientific ecosystems have and the needs and idiosyncrasies of each region. It does not consider the specific and differential contribution of institutions in critical mass, infrastructure, publications, links with the environment, national and international recognition, among others. And it also does not distinguish institutions in the region from others that have a circumstantial presence in that territory, sometimes for market motivations.
The regulation ignores basic antecedents of the development of the territories and, therefore, we do not understand why institutions that have been and are a constitutive part of the region, of its history, present and future, are marginalized from this Committee.
These universities are the ones that mostly train technicians. professionals and researchers in their territories. They have created master's and doctoral programs, vital for regional scientific and technological work, and promote teaching and research programs in medical specialties and health sciences.
In several regions these institutions are the main, and sometimes only, generators of scientific, technical knowledge and technological and social innovation, having centers, laboratories and specialized equipment. Capacities and knowledge that, incubated in universities, have always been shared with the environment and fed into national and local public policies.
Under the current pandemic, they became the main body of support for the public health system, carrying out research with national and international counterparts, carrying out PCR tests, designing highly complex equipment, personal protection elements and various materials, collaborating in government strategies. and congress proposals through expert advisory panels, among other relevant activities.
The National Scientific Network, of which the authority speaks, are the regional universities. The same ones that a regulation drawn up too quickly and without participation could marginalize.
They are the ones that generate knowledge in areas as diverse as environment and astronomy, migration and seismology, urban development and paleontology, opinion studies and mining, native peoples and artificial intelligence, public health and epidemiology, education and inclusion, humanities and sciences. social, among others.
Research that allows them to contribute more than 40% of scientific publications in Chile and 50% of state funds allocated to research and technological development.
By virtue of the relevance of the issue raised here and in our capacity as professionals and managers of science, we formally request that an explicit change be reviewed and generated, in which regional universities are incorporated into said regulations, a task for which we commit from now on, the contribution of the 22 regional universities that make up AUR.
Source: AUR Communications