Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Who are we

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) was established in 1888 to contribute to the material and spiritual progress of Chilean society:

• Training its students to be an example of a moral, spiritual life and of entrepreneurship and social welfare support.
• Generating knowledge which could allow Chile to prosper in a world where learning is the main source of wealth.
• Helping to find solutions for the Chilean society's problems. 

Development Principles

• Training project: UC encourages innovative and open-minded programmes of studies which could thoroughly reflect the ideas and values that inspire it. Such a goal requires an excellent and highly committed academic staff, new active education methodologies and international exchange promotion. In order to carry out this project it is essential to develop a proper infrastructure and to pay attention to the quality of life at university.
• Research and doctorate: To focus in knowledge development through disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and PhD training, turning this activity into the core of our academic life by laying the foundations for scientific research, humanist thought and artistic creation.
• Internationalization: To promote the international scope of this university encouraging exchange, networking, collaboration with international leading figures and the adoption of global standards.
• Relationship with society: UC wishes to empower its role in Chilean society in order to encourage the country's spiritual, cultural and material development and enrichment.
• Professors and executives: UC looks forward to reinforce its academic staff, promoting innovative teaching methodologies and encouraging research through a stimulating work environment.
• Resources and management staff: University must favour a participatory and efficient management following the institution's principles and values in order to create a welcoming and inspirational work environment.

Mission

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile is an educational community that rigorously and conscientiously develops a faith-enlightened knowledge and shares it with society, thus helping to build a genuinely humane nation that is supported by truth, freedom, justice, peace and solidarity.

Vision

UC takes part in the Church's evangelist mission and contributes to it through higher education and cultural exchange. In order to do this proposes, it provides:

• An educational project that is oriented towards bringing up upright individuals.
• A commitment with social welfare and truthfulness.
• An international academic scope.
• A constant exchange with society.
• An organizational framework that focuses on people.
• A reliance on stable financial resources.

Assistant Vice-rectory of Research and Doctorate

At Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Research and Doctorate represent the foundations of the academic activity. To develop knowledge through research in a wide variety of disciplines, to encourage artistic creation, to promote new postgraduate programmes —particularly regarding humanities, social sciences and arts— and to endorse a multidisciplinary approach, are all explicit goals of the Vice-recotry's 2000-2005 Development Plan.

The whole university community aims at the achievement of such goals, which permeate the collaboration between professors, students and technical staff from the various academic units, the postgraduate programmes and the cross-disciplinary research centres and programmes.

Some of the highlights of our university are: original and audacious research, publication in prestigious international journals, high-quality academic programmes for postgraduates in a wide variety of disciplines, and innovative undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. These are the foundations of our strength and our tools to boost the development of our country.

Innovation and Project Management

Dirección de Innovación y Proyectos (DIP or “Innovation and Project Management”) focuses on encouraging and supporting applied research and innovation development at university.

It is responsible for encouraging and supporting the creation and development of university projects concerning applied research with a market orientation, favouring long-term strategic alliances with the private sector and the government, creating multidisciplinary teams and protecting and profiting from university intellectual property.

Some of its activities are the following:

1. To support researchers that work on projects involving businesses and university.

2. To help to find contributions and partners (companies, universities) in order to design and carry out innovation projects.

3. To support intellectual and industrial property enforcement through confidentiality agreements, patents, copyrights or plant variety certifications.

4. To support technology transfer and commercialization, taking part in negotiations and licensing processes.

Technology Innovation Projects

Dirección de Innovación y Proyectos (“Management of Innovation and Projects”) endorses research, development and innovation institutional initiatives that, having a high financial impact both in private and public sectors, are precompetitive concerning cluster and industrial sector development, and involve technology generation, dissemination and transfer activities. Particularly, it supports strategic analysis of project marketability, financial guidance and agreement negotiation with third parties. Ultimately, the goal is to strengthen the market-oriented applied research infrastructure, stimulating the continuity of the various research lines and thus achieving competitive advantages for the country as well as for companies and research groups.

UC carries out projects that are financially supported by several public and private agencies, whether national or international, as for example: FONDEF and Programa Bicentenario de Tecnología (PBCY), both belonging to CONICYT; Comité Innova Chile (CORFO); Fondo para la Innovación Agraria (FIA) and Fondo de Mejoramiento del Patrimonio Sanitario del Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG); Fondo de Innovación Tecnológica del Ministerio de Obras Públicas (MOP); Funfación Copec-Universidad Católica; European Union Research and Development Framework Programmes; Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo and World Bank, among others.

As an example, at the 2007 tender organized by Fondo de Fomento al Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (Fondef), in which 102 projects from all over Chile competed, UC was awarded 6 out of 10 presented projects, what amounts to a 16% of the 32 subsidised initiatives. This means that UC's projects received 2,3 million US Dollars from Fondef and 3,7 million US Dollars from partner companies.

At the 2008 tender, which was resolved in 2009, UC was awarded 7 out of 13 presented projects pertaining to 6 different colleges, which meant 2.056 million US Dollars.

Business Technology Consortia

Technology Centres and Consortia are cross-disciplinary organizations that focuse on human capital development, research programmes design, development and innovation, and technology transfer. Both are supported by strategic alliances with businesses and the government backing.

In numerous occasions, these consortia have given birth to profitable, customer-oriented companies that achieve a high-level impact through transferring their results and finding new business opportunities.

Universidad Católica, together with several business groups, has been awarded funds granted by Fundación para la Innovación Agraria (FIA), Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (CORFO) and Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT), in order to create and start up 3 consortia:

Vinnova Vine and Wine Business Technology Consortium: It is an organization made up by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Concepción, 11 vineyards and Asociación de Viñas de Chile, which altogether amount to more than 90% of wine exports. Its main goal is to preserve and improve the wine sector's productive and export capacity developing research and innovation programmes regarding the whole wine production chain, from the first production stages to marketing. The goals of the consortium's programmes are the following: a) To learn customer's preferences; b) to improve and develop vine varieties, growing processes, fermentation and oenology; c) to improve wine productivity, differentiation and sustainable production; d) to carry out the technology transfer concerning the wine industry's results. (www.vinnova.cl)

Consorcio Tecnológico de la Industria Hortofrutícola S.A. It is an organization made up by Asociación de Exportadores de Chile A.G. (ASOEX), which is responsible for more than 90% of fresh fruit exports, 26 fruit export and production companies, Fundación para el Desarrollo Frutícola (FDF) and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Its mission is to develop fruit tree biotechnology and genetic improvement knowledge, scientific capacities, technologies and methodologies, in order to develop products or services for the fruit export business, to develop and/or improve fruit tree varieties that are more suitable for market and local production requirements, and to protect them and market them through product licensing so as to improve Chilean fruit's market share and profitability. Initial programmes concern table grape vine, stone fruit, apple and berry. (www.consorciodelafruta.cl)

Consorcio Tecnológico Empresarial en Biomedicina Clínico-Molecular Aplicada: It is an organization made up by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Laboratorios Recalcine S.A. and other major pharmaceutical companies. Its goal is to develop new technologies concerning products or services that can solve national and global health problems. Accordingly, it encourages the implementation of research and development programmes and results commercialization. The current research areas include cancer, infectious diseases, metabolic diseases and autoimmune diseases. (www.bmrc.cl)

Intellectual Property

DIP is responsible for the management, dissemination, control and monitoring of the intellectual and industrial property that is gathered through institutional project design and development (confidentiality agreements with postgraduates, third parties, government, professors and foreign students). Also, it supports academic and financial encouragement policies and coordinates and manages knowledge transfer in order to achieve market success. Currently, the university possesses 29 pending patents and 51 international patents in more than 19 countries (counting Europe as one country): Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, USA, Europe, Argentina, Brazil, China, Canada, Australia, Colombia, Venezuela, Japan, Korea, Russia, South Africa, India. Intellectual property commercialization is carried out by OTRI Chile consortium, whose main mission is “to market national inventions in the local and global markets through industrial property enforcement and transfer in order to boost the country's progress”.

OTRI CHILE Technology Transfer Office

OTRI CHILE S.A. (www.otrichile.cl) is a consortium made up by five universities: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Concepción, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad Católica del Norte and Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, as well as Confederación de la Producción y el Comercio and the product exporters association ASEXMA CHILE A.G., which represent the business sector. OTRI CHILE S.A. is a company that protects and transfers results being obtained through applied scientific research that follows national and international business requirements. OTRI CHILE accepts potentially protectable inventions from entities of any kind in order to evaluate and manage their patenting processes and, subsequently, to carry out the inventions' technology transfer to the national or international markets, normally through patent licensing.