With five awarded projects, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso places second at the national level in the 2025 Valorization of University Research Contest (VIU for its name in spanish) from the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID, for its name in spanish).
In this call, whose main purpose is to promote an innovative entrepreneurship culture in the student community, based on the valorization of scientific and/or technological research, the PUCV improved their placement in the Institutional ranking from third to second place in relation to the previous year and a percentage increase of 40% in applications was observed in relation to the same time period.
According to the guidelines of its 2023-2029 Institutional Strategic Plan, the PUCV places special emphasis on encouraging applied research and entrepreneurship both in pre and post graduate education, with sights on contributing to regional, national and global development.
For Luis Mercado, Vicerector of Research, Creation and Innovation (VINCI, for its name in spanish), this is an important achievement that demonstrates the high level of the projects that applied, highlighting that 67.74% of students that began the institutional support plan were able to complete their application.
“It is a great joy to see the results of the VIU contest and confirm how the research we are carrying out at the university can look into generating products that can be useful to society. On this occasion we increased the number of projects presented and we were also able to increase the number of awarded projects compared to last year which places us at second place in the national ranking together with other educational institutions. This is important since we are regional universities leading the research field through consistent formative processes”, Mercado explained.
Institutional Support
The director of Innovation at the PUCV, Macarena Rosenkranz, stated that “the good results obtained in the recent award of VIU projects are a response to the institutional effort of our university through the Vicerectory of Research, Creation and Innovation – especially the innovation department – promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in undergraduate and graduate students”.
“The success of this award also responds to the articulated work we are carrying out from the different programs at the university, projects that have been previously supported by internal innovation contests led by the Innovation and entrepreneurship division of the Innovation Department and backed up by the Transference and Licensing Office (OTL for its name in spanish) and the InES I+D program. This articulated work is rendering results and we hope to increase our applications to external funds with more solid proposals that will allow us successful awards such as this”, Rosenkranz added.
The Vicerector of VINCI also mentioned the support provided during the application process, where he highlighted the concept of associativity, “since many students work with university scholars in various lines of investigation”.
About the projects
The five PUCV selected projects on this call possess an important innovation and entrepreneurship component and propose solutions that have an impact on the environment, food and infrastructure areas. Two of them are doctoral students, two are master’s students and the fifth project is from an undergraduate student.
Johanna Cortés, Biotechnology doctoral student, was awarded a project to formulate a biofertilizer based on bacteria, whose main feature is its broad thermal range and thermal activation.
“This means that it can be used not only on standard temperatures in agriculture, but it can also be used at high temperatures associated to the heat waves that are increasingly more common due to climate change. “Thermogro” is the only product capable of fertilizing at these temperatures”, Johanna Cortés explained.
The biotechnology doctoral student also highlighted the support from the university, “since this has been a long-established project. Last year I won the internal Crea Inicia contest, which allowed me to have access to personalized advice that was very helpful to complete my VIU application: to prepare material, fill forms and present the financial information”.
By Erika Schubert
Strategic Communications Department
