Through the workshop “Opportunities and challenges for young people with a PhD in Chile”, the public and private offering that exists for the necessary inclusion of former scholarship holders in the country was announced.
One of the main challenges to reach standards from developed countries is to achieve an adequate number of investigators in relation to the population of the country, thus CONICYT has greatly increased the number of scholarships, especially PhD. The subsequent step is to create the conditions for the proper integration of these professionals in the country in order to materialize their contribution to development.
“We hope that from 2014 about 800 doctors per year rejoin the national C&T+i system, who will contribute with their experiences and knowledge to higher education sectors, companies, government and through their personal endeavors”, said José Miguel Aguilera, President of CONICYT.
In this context, a workshop was conducted to deliver relevant information and perspectives from both the public and private world on the possibilities that exist for new PhDs and investigators.
Academically, the Director of Fondecyt from CONICYT, Maria Elena Boisier, presented the details of Introduction to Research and Postdoctoral tenders, noting that both instruments have approval rates of around 50%, with an excellent level of quality, and constituted at the gates for the approval of Fondecyt regular tenders.
The concrete example of linkage between science and company was conducted by Alex Berg, Technological Development Unit (UDT), Universidad de Concepcion, who told the experience of an Applied Research Center.
From the productive sector, Cristóbal Philippi, General Secretary of SOFOFA said, “There is a natural resource that we are just beginning to explode, which is our ability to generate knowledge. It is about transforming knowledge into a competitive making to improve the quality of life for all. How to integrate knowledge, science and company? Two items to consider: time in science is less urgent than in company. We must learn the language of the others and so also understand the worldview of others”.
The workshop had the participation of former scholarship holders, who obtained their PhDs through scholarships from CONICYT, Becas Chile and Beca Presidente de la República.
