Open letter to CORFO for the award of the Institute of Clean Technologies

The Association of Chilean Researchers in Switzerland (ICES), an organization of Chilean researchers, students and workers in Switzerland, interested in development at the comprehensive service of Chilean society, expresses its support for the public declaration of the Council of Rectors on January 7, 2020 In this, the decision of the CORFO entity to award the tender of the Clean Energy Institute (ITL) to the consortium Associated Universities Inc., whose purpose is to promote solar energy, sustainable mining and advanced lithium materials in the North of Chile.

As an Association, made up mostly of graduates from universities that are part of the Council of Rectors, it seems unusual to us that the participation of research and development centers located in the well-known Universities of Chile, Católica and Concepción is categorically excluded. among others, in a tender as important as the creation of the ITL. These universities have positioned themselves as the best in Chile in the URAP academic world ranking and throughout their history they have shown great development in research matters, high-impact scientific publications, as well as being protagonists in the application for patents and trademarks at the international level. national.

While Associated Universities Inc. is a non-profit organization focused on astrophysics and building facilities for the research community, we strongly believe that the goals of sustainable mining and solar energy would be better addressed by national research and engineering centers with the collaboration of foreign centers and not the other way around, where Chile remains as a secondary actor in an innovation project of which as a country we will be beneficiaries.

Finally, we ask CORFO to reconsider this decision, delivering a binding response and with the necessary arguments regarding the rejection of the proposal presented by the Association for the Development of Clean Technologies (ASDIT), of which Chilean universities with recognized trajectory are part. in research and development such as those already mentioned.

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Chilean researchers in Switzerland