Chile, challenges before science and technology

2023-06-10 10:23:57

Chile, challenges before science and technology. Faced with critical challenges for the future of Chile, we must appeal to science and technology and join the digital and biological revolution, among others.

Chile science technology

With the creation of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation in 2018, great expectations have arisen for the national scientific community, with an increase in the national budget for research and development (R&D).

In the last decade this has not changed and currently it is around 0.3% of GDP, well below the average for Europe (2.2%) or for countries such as China (2.4%) or the United States (3% ).

Although spending on research and development is an adequate and illustrative indicator of the national effort in this field, it is crucial to have a national science, technology, knowledge and innovation (CTCI) strategy.

This mobility plan establishes long-term development goals, which, together with a mature institutional framework, are a necessary condition to move towards a State policy on this issue that goes beyond governments.

The evidence shows us how CTCI is the engine of progress in our societies, promoting development and diversifying the productive matrix. It is enough to look at how to face the Covid-19 pandemic, since scientific work has managed to face the critical health situation.

We know that the budget allocated to this area must be increased, although there are other urgent needs in our country that require immediate attention.

Budgets

President Boric alluded to this in his recent public account, announcing his desire to double spending on science, technology, knowledge and innovation. A wise decision in our opinion, but will we know how to properly use the new resources?

Through the Undersecretary of Science, a “New Pact with Our Universities” is promoted, to work together with the Research Commission of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities, ways of thinking and rethinking how we will be able to advance and implement this significant budget increase, without causing the collapse of the system and institutions (National Agency for Research and Development -ANID-), with the required liquidity and efficiency.

It is necessary to advance in a mixed system that contains the basic financing of the universities, especially the public ones, and that allows the installation of enabling capacities, taking into account the difficulties detected in the regions and the disparities that have generated enormous gaps.

revolutions

Chile faces critical challenges for the future that we must face today, such as the biological revolution, sustainability, the digital revolution, democracy and governance, among others.

In an effort to foresee, the National Council of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation for Development called for a broad and representative dialogue that involves actors from public, private, academic and social organizations, an initiative that marks a cycle on how the country It must address strategic issues.

We must move towards achieving a leap in financing that allows us to have equal opportunities, since there is an agreement and joint action aimed at achieving it.