With support from ANID and sponsorship from Lockheed Martin, it will select 10 science- and technology-based teams for an intensive eight-week training program. The program will culminate in the award of a fund to turn lab results into viable businesses. Applications will be open until July 21.
Know Hub Chile announced the opening of Ignition 06, its acceleration program that since 2019 has driven the development of early-stage science- and technology-based ventures.
The initiative is backed by the National Research and Development Agency (ANID) and sponsored by Lockheed Martin to boost transfer from the lab to the market. The call, open until July 21, will select 10 teams that will compete for a total of USD 10,000 in funding.
With this new edition, Ignition reinforces its role as a pioneering program in Chile and Latin America. At a time when the country seeks to move toward a more diversified economy that is less dependent on resource extraction, it positions science and technology startups as key players in generating solutions with social, economic and environmental impact.
From science to the real world.
Since 2019, the program has boosted teams with solutions in areas as diverse as biotechnology, clean energy, robotics and nanotechnology, among others. One example is Photio, a startup that created a nanotechnology additive capable of breaking down polluting gases using solar radiation, so that one square meter painted with this technology simulates the purifying effect of two mature trees.
After taking part in 2020, the team managed to connect its research with commercial viability, understood its customers’ needs and made progress on its international certification.
This success is joined by the 2025 winners, such as Luyef, creators of lab-grown vegan human collagen, and Bluera, with a system free of toxic emissions that turns mixed waste into clean energy gas.
Other standouts from previous cohorts include MOV, which designed a sensory band with sonar technology for people with visual impairments, and BioProc, a biotech startup developing solutions for the decontamination of industrial gases and odors using automated electrochemical biofilters.
All these examples show how teams manage to mature their technologies and take science from academia to the market.
Esteban Zapata, head of Transfer and Entrepreneurship at ANID, highlights Ignition’s track record as an innovative program that strengthens teams from the early stages: “The tools delivered and received through Ignition’s working model help improve the value proposition, as well as the relationship between that value proposition and those interested in these science- and technology-based solutions. So, in that respect, Ignition plays a fundamental role in the ecosystem.”
The program provides participants with a solid strategic foundation. Alonso Ureta, senior manager at Know Hub Chile, stresses: “Ignition 06 consolidates our track record in the Chilean innovation ecosystem. Our purpose is to give teams the tools and rigor they need to commercially validate their technologies.”
Application requirements.
To be eligible for the program, projects must be focused on research and development (R&D) and have a minimum technology readiness level of TRL 3, that is, the innovation has already moved beyond theoretical proofs of concept and has initial experimental evidence.
The joint participation of a technical profile with scientific expertise and a business development profile is also required. Offering flexibility, the rules allow the company’s legal entity to be formalized during the course of the training.
The eight-week training is based on the Customer Discovery methodology, turning technology hypotheses into measurable commercial evidence.
Regarding the rigor of the methodology, Ureta explains that in this process they want researchers to go deeper into areas critical to the business, ranging from the technical description of their innovation and quantifying the market pain point to designing an intellectual property strategy to protect their patents.
“The training will also guide them step by step through financial sizing, detailed analysis of the competitive landscape and the consolidation of a sustainable revenue model that ensures the project’s commercial viability,” he says.
The training cycle will close in September 2026 with an in-person Demo Day. At this event, the 10 startups will deliver a final pitch to an evaluation panel, which will assess technical quality and hypothesis validation in order to distribute the USD 10,000 fund, resources earmarked entirely for new proofs of concept.
Read the original article at https://www.tourinnovacion.cl/convocatorias/know-hub-chile-lanza-ignition-06-programa-de-aceleracion-tecnologica-con-un-fondo-a-repartir-de-usd-10000/
