The new Unit is attached to the Vice-Rector's Office for Research and Postgraduate Studies.

Supporting the implementation of institutional mechanisms, criteria and quality standards in terms of creation and innovation, to provide additional value to institutionally generated knowledge, will be the objective of the newly created Creation and Innovation Office of the University of La Serena, attached to the Vice-rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies.

This unit has been strategically conceived to strengthen research results within the University, providing better conditions for the promotion of knowledge and applied science developed at the ULS.

The Rector of the University of La Serena, Dr. Luperfina Rojas Escobar, explained that “this work will promote creativity in the solution of problems with regional, national and international relevance, valuing the results of the research obtained by the academic community, involving thus an interaction between the public sector, productive activity, the cultural environment and society.”

Likewise, the highest institutional authority explained that “during recent years the institution has implemented a competitive model of innovation and creation of new knowledge, to strengthen the scientific and technological productivity of our institution. This new paradigm involves consolidating a new governance framework for innovation processes, their actors and results involved, which incorporates the visions of the different areas of knowledge. This new office is the result of this effort."

In this sense, the Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies of the ULS, Dr. Héctor Cuevas Larenas, added that this work of recent years is now consolidated with an area specialized in promoting the creation of new knowledge, innovation, technological transfer, licensing and the generation of patents that allow the protection of intangibles.

The team of professionals that make up this new office is headed by Dr. Jorge Cornejo Troncoso, who pointed out that “we will work by mandate of the higher authority to plan, execute and provide centralized administrative support that allows promoting and strengthening the institutional work in Creation and Innovation subjects. At the same time, it supports and provides ad hoc support in matters of protection and management of the property of intellectual and industrial products generated by the ULS.”

This unit will have the subunits of Creation Management, Innovation Management, Projects, Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer; and Intellectual and Industrial Property.