Level Up UChile 2023: the program that seeks to boost technologies with social and commercial impact

This initiative, which seeks to support Chile’s development toward a knowledge-based society and economy, will run from January through March, led by Know Hub Chile and the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Development of the Universidad de Chile.

Source: Qué Pasa, La Tercera

With a strong turnout, the Level Up UChile 2023 program, led by Know Hub and the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Development (VID) of the Universidad de Chile, kicked off on January 3. The initiative seeks to build advanced capabilities for developing technologies with commercial and social potential, expanding regional capacity and talent with a global outlook.

Level Up UChile 2023 includes a range of workshops, both online and in person, in the first stage of the course, which will run from January 3 to January 26, 2023. The program is aimed at researchers, research assistants, faculty, and graduate and undergraduate students with proposals that have some degree of validation and lend themselves to innovation and entrepreneurship.

The initiative is driven by Know Hub Chile, a nonprofit corporation that seeks to support Chile’s development toward a knowledge-based society and economy. Its main goal is to help transform the scientific research results of its members (universities and research centers) into goods, services and ventures that are available on the market and benefit society.

“Our work, in particular, is to transform science and technology into goods, services and ventures; in other words, into innovation,” said Know Hub Chile executive director Javier Ramírez. He also noted that the program’s main objective is for the ideas presented by participants to become ventures that Know Hub can support in their transition to market.

“Our work, in particular, is to transform science and technology into goods, services and ventures; in other words, into innovation,” said Know Hub Chile executive director Javier Ramírez. He also noted that the program’s main objective is for the ideas presented by participants to become ventures that Know Hub can support in their transition to market.

For the Director of Research at the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Development of the Casa de Bello, Andreé Henríquez, the initiative stems from the VID’s commitment to fostering innovation within the institution and to continue delving into these topics and their new challenges.

“We firmly believe that, through this work with Know Hub, we can move forward together toward having greater impact with our technologies. We hope it will be a program that improves capabilities and also helps spread the word that the Universidad de Chile does innovation, and good-quality innovation at that,” said Henríquez.

Empowering researchers

The first session of Level Up Uchile 2023, “Course introduction. Technology description and stage of development,” presented the course objectives, schedule and formats to the researchers and graduate and undergraduate students who joined the program.

With five online theory-and-practice sessions and three in-person sessions, the classes will be taught by Know Hub Chile’s professional team and will include personalized mentoring. In them, each participant will carry out dynamic exercises with the other attendees, aiming to build networks that promote interdisciplinary research with the team’s guidance.

Sol Uribe, technology transfer analyst at Know Hub Chile and facilitator in the course, said that through this initiative they seek to close existing gaps in technology transfer. “For our part, the team is fully committed to supporting participants on this journey, where their motivation and eagerness to validate their proposals alone can lead to excellent results,” she emphasized.

Initiatives like Level Up provide researchers not only with knowledge but also with practical tools so they can steer their research and/or projects from the very first steps. In this way, they could come to solve a need or problem in a given market and thus manage to commercialize and have a positive impact on society.

Jovanka Trebotich, technology transfer coordinator at Know Hub Chile and a lecturer in the program, said that the expectation for the course is “to plant the seed of a cultural change in researchers’ approach, so that they have all the cards on the table to decide which path to take with their research projects: whether to pursue a science- and technology-based venture, go the licensing route, or continue researching to expand the body of scientific and technological knowledge.”

“Our idea, which sounds ambitious, is to bring about that change of mindset in researchers so they see that their research can ultimately have a positive impact on society through multiple technology transfer pathways,” Trebotich concluded.