“CEDENNA has experience in technology transfer and a closer relationship with the productive sector; therefore, obviously, it is going to have a more prominent role in the short term”, said Minister Flavio Salazar at the end of his tour of the country's main nanoscience and nanotechnology center.
The Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Dr. Flavio Salazar, paid this Wednesday a visit to the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of Chile, CEDENNA, located at the University of Santiago de Chile, on which occasion he was received by researchers with a fair with nanotechnological innovations with direct applications in different productive sectors.
Accompanied by the director of the center, the National Science Award, Dr. Dora Altbir, he toured the different modules where he talked with the scientists who explained the projects in detail, including sensors with nanotechnology for detecting unbreakable and machinery wear in mining; nanotechnology sensors for the detection of pathogens such as Listeria and E. Coli in food; intelligent packaging to preserve food in time and quality, among others.
OPEN LAB
On the occasion, Dr. Altbir announced that CEDENNA is developing a new strategic science-industry platform, called OPEN LAB, through which it seeks to create a node of associated companies to promote research and technological development, in the search for answers innovative to the challenges that each sector has.
After the tour of the different stands, Flavio Salazar visited two of CEDENNA's laboratories, Biology and Nanosafety, the only one in the country in the area.
The Minister stressed that the approach proposed by Cedenna is fully in tune with the strategy proposed by the government and its portfolio to promote the development of research, "putting science really in its rightful place within a development model ”.
“The vocation and approach of the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology has a lot in common with what we want to promote for science in Chile, where scientific excellence, the training of human resources and talents, focused on projects that are related to the development of the country," he said.
SCIENCE FOR A NEW DEVELOPMENT MODEL
The Secretary of State concluded his tour at the Cedenna Auditorium, for a meeting with researchers, technicians and professionals from the Center to whom he detailed the "Science for a new development model" program that is installed from four objectives: strengthening the CTIC system ; promote the decentralization of research and innovation focused on sustainable development; promote and advance towards a national sovereignty of scientific and technological capabilities in strategic areas of the country, and democratize knowledge by linking scientific and technological research with social development, promoting sustainability and involving society and its territories.
He highlighted that the exploratory budget proposes a significant growth in the funds of the CTCI Ministry for the year 2023 and explained how the Tax Reform proposed by the Executive can positively impact the sector.
Meanwhile, in her speech, the director of CEDENNA, Dr. Dora Altbir Drullinsky, highlighted that “in these 12 years of life, the effort made by each of the CEDENNA researchers has not been less. Thanks to their work, and to the hundreds of students, postdoctoral students and engineers who participate in our Center each year, we have become the largest Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Center in the country”.
“I am confident that the committed work of excellence that we carry out, as well as that carried out by other research centers in the country, will capture the attention of the private sector and convince it to support and invest in national science and its developments. The future is nanometers away and Chile cannot and should not be left behind”, he specified.
“I am convinced – she added – that this is the way in which we will be able to follow a path in which cooperation, collaboration, inter and multidisciplinary, and inter and multi-university perspectives are key in a joint public-private effort”.
The president of the board of directors of CEDENNA and rector of the University of Santiago, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, stressed that the view from the Ministry of Science is on the right track. “The approaches that he has made take a direction that is going to be good for science and the country,” he pointed out.
“Several countries have been able to interpret very well the potential of nanoscience and nanotechnology, both for scientific interest and for the great economic impact that nanotechnology will generate on the world stage, placing the countries that develop it in a favorable position, and therefore with a capacity to generate sustainable public policies, creating a virtuous circle between science, technology, economy and public policies. We trust that Chile will also go down this path in favor of development, equality, growth and the good of the country”, indicated the rector of USACH.
The day concluded with the delivery to the minister of a winning photograph in one of the Cedenna contests, called nano gears, nanostructures of vanadium oxide in a beautiful and symmetrical assembly, as a symbol of "a trace of the nanoworld".
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