Projects With Social Impact: Initiatives With Measurable Benefits Are Promoted

enero 31, 2025

The Directorate of Innovation, Development and Technology Transfer of the Universidad Católica del Maule called on the campus researchers to generate proposals with measurable effects on society and the environment.

The development of innovative projects with high social impact promoted the second edition of the “Networking of Researchers”, organized by the Direction of Innovation, Development and Technology Transfer of the Universidad Católica del Maule (UCM).

The event, held at the Hotel Casino Talca, brought together more than seventy academics from the house of studies, around the key concepts in the formulation of initiatives aimed at solving local or global challenges.

“The objectives are to associate our researchers, for them to get to know each other and discover their lines of development, and to promote multidisciplinary research,” said Fabiola Loyola, director of the unit that promoted the conference for the second consecutive year.

“Today we presented the impacts that an applied research project should handle in the economic, environmental and, of course, social fields, coinciding with the university’s mission,” she added.

In addition to working groups, the networking included a workshop entitled “Integral Business Model”, which offered tools to improve the preparation of projects, considering strategies aimed at quantifying the social, economic and environmental value and benefits of the initiatives.

The methodology corresponds to a proposal created by the Directorate of Innovation, Development and Technology Transfer itself.

“All our projects have, of course, a social impact, but the invitation is to quantify it, describe it and make it clear, so that it is understood where and to whom it will benefit. This necessarily means zooming into the communities and crunching the numbers”, emphasized Innovation manager Rodrigo Herrera.

Cristian Valdés, PhD in Applied Science, valued the effort to strengthen the collaborative environment.

“Sometimes researchers work backwards. By habit, material feasibility or line of work, normally one has the idea first. I think the call is to prioritize people’s needs and measure the effects,” said Valdés, who is also an academic at UCM’s Center for Research and Advanced Studies of Maule (CIEAM).

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