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Chile is currently taking the first steps towards the establishment of a new and broadly based Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) strategy. Within this framework, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is supporting phase I of a research that will assess the costs and benefits of the different institutional settings available to Chilean authorities in order to present possible models for increased integration of university research into the overall country’s national system of innovation (NSI).

 

In the technical workshop organized on March 26, 2008 by IDRC, under the lead of its Latin American and Caribbean Regional Office (LACRO), participants were exposed to the initial findings of the IDRC-supported research. The Workshop “Science and Technology Policy Review, Chile 2008: University Research Funding and Evaluation, Alternatives for Chile” – Phase I, aimed at presenting preliminary findings with regard to assessing international evidence on the role of universities in the NSI and compare it with the Chilean context; and describe the different options available at the international level for funding university research.

 

During the Workshop, the participants also discussed how university research funding and incentive systems vary across scientific fields; how the trade-offs between research, teaching, and extension activities is being tackled at the micro level by setting a right system of incentives; how to identify criteria used and the importance attributed by governmental institutions to support public universities and research as part of special territorial and demographic policies.

 

Federico Burone, Regional Director for LACRO opened the Workshop and welcomed the guest. He was followed by the consultants Randall Spence and Jorge Katz who presented their preliminary findings of the phase I research work they’ve carried out.

 

The consultants presentation was followed by comments from the Canadian experts Howard Alper, Foreign Officer of the Academies of the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada, previously known as the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), and Visiting Executive at IDRC, and by Adam Holbrook, from the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC. The consultants’ presentation also received comments from experts from Chile, José Miguel Benavente, from the Innovation Council at the University of Chile; Daniel Wolff from the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH); and Sergio Marshall Vice-Rector Research and Postgraduate Studies at the Catholic University in Valparaíso and CRUCH.

 

Jorge Katz and Randall Spence proposed the methodological approaches to deal with the objectives of the phase II of the study followed by an open debate between all the participants, and by final remarks on the way forward given by Rohinton Medhora, Vice-President, Programs and Partnership Branch at IDRC.

 

Other participants included Richard Isnor, Director, IPS, IDRC; Gustavo Crespi, Senior Program Officer, Innovation, Technology and Society (ITS) program initiative, IDRC; Jean Woo, Program Officer, ITS; the Ambassador of Chile in Canada, H.E. Ambassador Eugenio Ortega Riquelme; Fidel Colomoa, First Secretary, Commercial and Political Affairs, Embassy of Chile in Canada; Melanie Cullins, Director International Relations at the Canadian National Research Council (NRC); Paul Thoppil, Director-General, Innovation and Partnership, Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT); Dave Church, Deputy Director, Innovation, Science and Technology Division at DFAIT; Dawn Jeffrey, Senior Policy Analyst, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC); and Margot Edwards, Trade and Science and Technology Commissioner, Embassy of Canada in Chile.

 

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