What if the scientific method could also be applied to innovation? Know Hub Chile, UC Riverside and Hub APTA bet on training researchers in a program created especially for them. Two participants shared their positive experience in the panel discussion, which was also attended by authorities such as Aisén Etcheverry, National Director of ANID.
How can we build a culture of innovation among researchers? That was the central question of the panel discussion organized by the Technology Transfer Hubs Know Hub Chile and Hub APTA, which brought together researchers and various authorities, such as Aisén Etcheverry, National Director of the National Research and Development Agency, ANID.
Two of the event’s protagonists were researchers who showed how their projects evolved thanks to their participation in the innovation program organized by Know Hub Chile, the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside) and Hub APTA. The intensive six-week training included classes, support from national experts, mentoring by UC Riverside specialists and weekly interviews by the teams with companies and key players in the innovation ecosystem. This first cohort included 64 researchers and professionals from nine institutions (12 teams in total).
“By far, one of the things we gained most from the project was a sharper focus. And it’s not just a project anymore; there is a possibility of transfer and of building a business,” said Dr. Eduardo Tapia, researcher in the plant health group of the Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA), about the achievements of the BioAgTech project in the innovation program. This biopesticide, developed from native fungal strains, is used to control the painted bug (bagrada hilaris), a pest that has caused losses worth millions in the United States and now also in Chile.
“We changed the paradigm in how we look for information; it’s no longer just from the literature and papers. Now we go to companies and we have economic and impact indicators, for society and for the public sector. We also realized there was a whole surrounding environment, and we were able to systematize it,” added Dr. Tapia, leader of the team, which also includes researchers Lorena Barra, Daina Grinbergs, Fabiola Altimira, Mª Esperanza Sepúlveda and Jean Castro. Dr. Evelyn Silva Moreno, INIA’s National Head of Innovation Management, also took part in the panel discussion.
Dr. Tapia also acknowledges that everything related to their business model and value proposition changed during the program. That is how they discovered what their potential buyers really needed: a broad-spectrum biopesticide (covering about five pests) with a very stable formulation. “By the end of the program we understood that it was about investing in the environment, which means investing in the future, with 15% growth,” he explained.
BioAg Tech was part of the pilot of UC Riverside’s innovation program based on I-Corps, a methodology created by the National Science Foundation, NSF (the US agency equivalent to ANID). Know Hub Chile and UC Riverside worked together to adapt this program to the Chilean context. They began implementing it in 2019 with the Know Hub Ignition teams, an initiative that supports the creation and maturation of science- and technology-based ventures. In 2020 they chose to open it to Know Hub Chile’s member institutions to broaden the culture of innovation among their researchers. Thanks to Hub APTA joining this challenge, the pilot reached more researchers and institutions and aligned two national institutions working in technology transfer.
The Pisci Detector team from the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics at Universidad Mayor also took part in the innovation program. This technology is a diagnostic kit for pathogens in salmon, whose advantages are its ease of use, speed and the fact that it can be applied on site (no lab required). In this way, it seeks to help salmon farms manage infectious diseases more sustainably.
“Within the program, one of the strong points was improving our business model, thanks to the results we got from the interviews. As for the value proposition, we defined it wrongly at the start of the program and finished the program basing it on quantifiable points that matter to salmon farms,” said Héctor Vásquez, biotechnology student and innovation lead at Pisci Detector, a team that also includes researchers Sebastián Reyes and Diego Pérez. Dr. Patricio Manque, Vice-Rector for Research at Universidad Mayor, also took part in the panel discussion.
Javier Ramírez, Executive Director of Know Hub Chile, reflected on the program’s advantages: “There is a before and after the training in how these teams frame the problem they are trying to solve for a specific market and customer. So the team, the institution it belongs to and the customer all benefit. But institutions such as ANID also benefit directly, through the better use of the public resources invested in this project, which has been properly supported from the outset to find its place in society. And that is when we reach the true beneficiary: society as a whole.”
Rosibel Ochoa, Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Partnerships at UC Riverside, commented on the alliance between her university and Know Hub Chile: “We are about to mark four years of working together toward this shared ideal of transforming our society and territories into high-impact regions, into engines of economic growth based on innovation and technology-driven entrepreneurship. It is easier said than done: it means working, as they say, in the trenches, side by side and hand in hand. This is not for the impatient, but it is very rewarding and leads to very good results.”
Varinka Farren, Executive Director of Hub APTA, added: “2020 was a very difficult year for everyone, one in which science and technology undoubtedly took center stage. In this context, collaboration allowed us to move this program forward with a common goal rather than individually. I believe that should happen with the different institutions and corporations we work with. Being part of this program carried out with the University of California, Riverside was a very valuable experience for us.”
The introductory panel was closed by Aisén Etcheverry, National Director of ANID, the institution the hubs have belonged to since January 1 of this year. “When you look at it from this agency, where a large share of our resources goes to training people and basic research; when we see how hard it is in those areas to create incentives or demand results that go beyond generating knowledge through papers, it is a process that takes time and requires a lot of socialization, discussion and adaptation. We have a system that is used to working in a certain way, and that is full of indicators, measures and structures that work that way,” said Etcheverry. She added that this is not being built “from a vacuum, but with a history that goes back years in our country and that has advanced in a rather virtuous way.”
To learn more about the innovation program for researchers and the 12 teams that took part, click here.
To watch the video of the panel discussion “Expanding opportunities for researchers: How can we build a culture of innovation among researchers?”, click here.
