Universidad de Chile led with five adjudicated projects, a total of 30 benefited initiatives in the last version of FONDEQUIP. The Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences obtained three of those projects financed by CONICYT.
A total of CLP $692.225.620 was adjudicated by Universidad de Chile distributed in five FONDEQUIP projects, from a total of 30 proposals aproved in the last contest, which represents 16.6% of the total of assigned projects at a national level.
The Faculty for Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the university adjudicated 3 of these projects which represent 68.4 % of the resources obtained by Universidad de Chile in the contest, totalling CLP $473.679.654. These three projects will allow for the purchase and implementation of world class scientific and technological equipment that will be destined mainly to research and development activities.
The higher education institution with the most number of adjudicated projects was Universidad de Chile with 5, followed by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile with four. The Academic and Research Unit of the Faculty released the following information about the adjudicated projects:
1.- “Addition of a Preparative liquid chromatography (CLP) to strengthen a platform oriented to protein and bio-products purification”, that directs the academic Dr. María Elena Lienqueo, from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. Participate as associate researchers Dr. Juan Asenjo, Dr. Barbara Andrews, and Dr. Oriana Salazar. The equipment will be financed with the contribution by FONDEQUIP of CLP $99.128.161 added to funding by the department of CLP $4.659.255 and a counterpart funding by FCFM of CLP $17.794.498. The total amount that will be invested in this equipment will be CLP $121.581.914.
2.- “Processing Advanced System and Super-computing Services”, of researcher Dr. Gines Guerrero, Director of the National Laboratory for High Performance Computing (NLHPC), of the Center for Mathematical Modeling. The equipment is a cluster for high performance scientific computing that will be co-purchased with FONDEQUIP funds of CLP $220.000.000 and a counterpart funding by CMM of CLP $14.499.872 and by FCFM of CLP $38.394.151. The total amount that will be invested in this equipment will be $272.894.023.
3.- “Equipment for Emulation and Evaluation of Energetic Storage Systems», that directs the academic Dr. Roberto Cardenas of the Departament of Electrical Engineering (DIE). Participate as associate researchers of this project Dr. Doris Saez and Dr. Marcos Orchard from that same department. In that case, the equipment will be financed with a contribution by FONDEQUIP of CLP $154.551.493 and a counterpart funding by DIE and by FCFM of CLP $7.480.000 and $17.920.002, respectively. The total investment in this equipment will be $179.951.495.
«This equipment will allow us to maintain a work of excellence in frontier research on each and every of the corresponding areas and will give the chance to our young researchers and postgraduate students to perform theses and take experiential activities in laboratories of world class level in the faculty», highlighted the Academic and Research Director of FCFM, Claudio Perez.
Aims and Scope of the Scientific and Technological Equipment Fund
*To foment the scientific development of the country, through financial support to Institutions for the acquisition and/or update of medium scale scientific and technological equipment including its transportation, installation and accessing.
*To promote intra and inter institutional cooperation between research groups that guarantee the efficient use of the equipment.
*To promote shared use of the equipment, to solve the challenges of more than one research project.
*To strengthen the regional scientific and technological development.
Source: FCFM Universidad de Chile News