New generation of UCM researchers was awarded ten Fondecyt projects

enero 22, 2024

The National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) will finance the initiatives anchored in five faculties of the campus.

Ten projects aimed at strengthening the capacities of new researchers were awarded to the Universidad Católica del Maule (UCM), in the latest call of the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development, Fondecyt, in its «Initiation» category.

The competition is financed by ANID and its purpose is to strengthen research excellence through the promotion of young professionals with doctoral degrees.

«We are very pleased with these awards, because they allow us to advance in complexity in various areas of knowledge, consolidating leadership in some lines and encouraging our newest researchers to present quality projects. This contributes to the positioning and prestige of our university and contributing as a vector of development in our region,» said the Vice Rector for Research and Graduate Studies of the campus, Hernán Maureira.

Within the institution, the Faculty of Education Sciences was positioned as the unit that achieved the highest number of approved initiatives, with a total of five projects. These projects will be led by academics María Francisca Cáceres, Lorena López, Nicolás Acuña, Eugenio Merellano and Ranjeeva Ranjan.

«We initiated a strategy with the first Fondecyt researchers who joined our ranks, consisting of providing accompaniment and support to new doctors who require the experience of the most experienced ones. This is a group of young academics that, from the perspective of public policy, allows us to advance by leaps and bounds towards the Regular Fondecyts,» said the dean of the faculty, Rodrigo Vargas.

Other benefited researchers are Gonzalo Núñez and Carmelo Galioto from the Faculty of Religious and Philosophical Sciences, Fabian Silva from the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Andrea Vergara from the Faculty of Basic Sciences and María Carolina Silva from the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences.

At the national level, UCM is among the first twenty universities with the most awards, out of a total of 58 institutions.

ANID also delivered the results of the Fondecyt Postdoctoral competition, where the campus stood out with four approved initiatives. The researchers responsible for the projects are Valeria Arriaza, Barbara Guzmán, Lilian Hernández and Mónica Núñez, who will work under the sponsorship of Carla Muñoz, Roberto Ferreira, Jorge Valenzuela and Andrés Solorzano, respectively.