The finalists will receive support for research and development activities and help in securing public funding.
Four projects submitted by teams from Universidad de Santiago (Usach), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) and Universidad de Concepción (UdeC) are taking part in the final stage of the Proa I+D Program, which seeks to promote applied research using the testing, piloting and project validation capabilities of the Chilean Navy (Armada de Chile).
The institution has a presence throughout the national territory. It also operates in a variety of areas across different dimensions of the territory. For this reason, it is of great interest to the institution to address problems, opportunities or challenges that are relevant to it and that may span various fields of knowledge.
The purpose of the program, carried out jointly with Know Hub Chile, is to collaborate with people engaged in research, providing them with the spaces they need to carry out work of mutual interest. By exploring new horizons, it fosters an environment of innovation and progress that will benefit not only the Chilean Navy but society as a whole.
Proa I+D seeks to support scientific and technological research projects with a background that supports a hypothesis for applying a technology, product or service, and which, as the research develops, achieve validation through a proof of concept, model or prototype evaluated under laboratory or small-scale conditions within two years.
Selected projects
According to Know Hub Chile, Proa I+D included a first stage of identifying and selecting proposals of institutional interest or with development potential in that field, in which 10 teams were chosen. The second stage involved beneficiary discovery and support through institutional spaces, in which the pertinence and relevance of the problem or challenge to be addressed were validated, and the spaces needed to carry out the proposed applied research and development were identified and explored.
The teams are currently in the third stage, applying for funding, working together with the Navy and Know Hub Chile to define the application model for the available competitive funds. Finally, in the fourth stage, execution of the R&D project, if a project is awarded, it will be carried out as agreed in the application.
The first selected project is Navy Fuel Cells: A study of the behavior of a PEM fuel cell in marine environments for the electric power supply of Chilean Navy vessels and submarines, submitted by Usach and led by Isaac Díaz.
PUC is taking part in the final with the research projects Hydrophones for ship detection (Hidróforo), led by Federico Fuentes, and New Technology for Systems Oxygenation, led by Flavia Zacconi;
The fourth project in the Proa I+D program is Development of an in-lab evaluation system to determine the performance of systems exposed to marine fouling, submitted by UdeC and led by Felipe Montoya.
High level of participants
Know Hub Chile’s Innovation coordinator, Jovanka Trebotich, highlights the level of the teams and the diversity of research that took part in the Proa I+D program, “which shows us that national researchers are interested in initiatives such as Proa I+D and in the Navy being part of the R&D&I ecosystem”.
The head of the Proa I+D program, Lieutenant Commander Cristián Faúndez, says that this initiative has given the Chilean Navy the opportunity to learn about various projects led by researchers from academic institutions and research centers, whose maritime-related proposals make it possible to look for points of common interest, “allowing us to collaborate in the development of the lines of research through the experience and knowledge of our naval personnel, as well as by providing institutional spaces for tests, trials and validations”.
Know Hub Chile, Trebotich explains, held a bootcamp at the start with the 10 selected teams, where they learned about beneficiary/customer discovery, which they applied in the second stage. Follow-up sessions were then held with the 10 teams.
Joint work
During the first two stages of Proa I+D, Commander Faúndez adds, they accompanied the research teams, taking part in activities that allowed them to get to know the institution from a different perspective.
“This has given them the opportunity to interact with Navy specialists related to their research proposals through visits, meetings and interviews, allowing the teams to cross-check information so they can keep advancing the development of these initiatives”, he stresses.
Now, during this third phase, “our task is to keep supporting and accompanying them in the development of their research, working jointly with the researchers”, says Commander Faúndez.
This first edition of Proa I+D is a pilot experience, Trebotich adds, “so we are eagerly awaiting the results of the funding applications and hope to repeat this initiative in coming years and for other sources of funding”. The goal is to boost research and development, fostering systematic collaboration between defense and the CTCI (science, technology, knowledge and innovation) ecosystem.
