Candidate Gabriel Boric, assured that it will not decrease the financing destined to science and proposes to increase its financing to 1% of GDP

In the instance, the relevance of linking science was emphasized., technology and research with the territories, as well as increasing the budget and evaluation of FONDAP programs.

Within the framework of the scheduled meetings with the Research Centres and the candidates for the 2021 Presidency, last week the directors and representatives of the 13 FONDAP Centers attended a meeting with the candidate of the Frente Amplio, Gabriel Boric and his programmatic team (among them the deputy Giorgio Jackson) to address issues that afflict the science and technology sector in the coming years.

During the meeting, the financing of the sector was addressed, to which it was replied that, according to your program, the State should double the contribution compared to the current contribution, and thus financing reach 1% of GDP. "We do not decrease funding for Science Centers, if elected, we would like to increase funding for science to 1% of the Gross Domestic Product", Boric argued.

Regarding the contribution of FONDAP centres to public policies, the director of the (Cr)2, Maisa Rojas, stressed the need to stimulate the link between scientific evidence and decision-makers, where the establishment of priority areas is fundamental, emphasizing that this should have been done during the current government.

Faced with this concern, Boric replied that if elected, "We don't want the definition of priority areas to be behind closed doors., but rather in an enriched dialogue with those who have worked in this area for more than ten years.".

In this same line, Waldo Bustamante, deputy director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), said that it is essential that the evaluation policy and performance indicators of fondap centers consider the support of researchers in the development of public policies.

Other topics addressed at the meeting, were the maintenance of public policies linked abroad to enhance excellence in research. "It is of vital importance that in this next government the necessary tools are given to all those centers that participate and collaborate with research that is crucial for the improvement in technologies and innovations that go directly to the citizens.", said the director of the Center for Chronic Disease Studies ACCDIS, Dr. Sergio Lavandero.

At last, the instance also addressed the training of new and new researchers, as well as the integration of more women in this area.

The meeting was attended by the directors and representatives of the FONDAP Centers: Center for Research Dynamics of High Latitude Marine Ecosystems (Ideal), Centre for the Study of Conflict and Social Cohesion (COES), Centre for advanced studies of chronic diseases (ACCDIS), Water resources Center for agriculture and mining (CRHIAM), Interdisciplinary Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Studies (CIIR), Center for Climate Science and Resilience (CR2), Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), Center for Solar Energy Research (SERC-Chile), Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), Interdisciplinary Centre for Aquaculture Research (INCAR), Center of Excellence in Geothermal Energy of the Andes (CEGA), Regulation of the genome Center (CRG), Geroscience Center, Mental Health and metabolism (GERO).

Meeting with other candidates

This is the second meeting held by the directors and representatives of the centers with presidential candidacies. On September 2, met with the candidate of the Christian Democracy, Yasna Provoste, who among his proposals also included doubling the budget in the field of Science and Technology.