Proposal presented by the Institute of Astronomy of the Catholic University of the North (UCN) got first place.
Three initiatives that seek to strengthen the UCN identity and the connection with the community were winners of the “Contestable Fund of the Strategic Development Plan (PDE) 2025”.
The objective of the Competitive Fund is to encourage and empower the university community to actively participate in the co-construction of the plan that will guide the institution from 2025 onwards. It also seeks to generate instances that reinforce the culture of quality and the institutional commitment to the territory.
A total of 17 proposals presented by both headquarters applied to obtain financing, as stated by Yolanda Gutiérrez Aguilera, Director of Strategic Development and Quality, “it is the second time we have held this contest, we are happy with the call and with the quality of the initiatives presented, which will allow us to continue strengthening the process of preparing the PDE2025.”
In this regard, Cristian Morales Leztkus, Vice Chancellor of Strategic Development and Quality, added that “It is a priority to rescue from the different levels of our university community the best practices, experiences and ideas to strengthen our work and achieve better results. This is the main objective of this contest from which we have collected valuable proposals.”
WINNING INITIATIVES
The first place was obtained by the project “The universe in your hands: astronomical workshops with teaching materials for teachers and students of educational establishments in Antofagasta” from the Institute of Astronomy of the Universidad Católica del Norte.
Daniel Arce Morales, in charge of communications and liaison at the UCN Institute of Astronomy, pointed out that “this is another way of linking us with the educational establishments in the area, so that they can learn about what the Institute does and that the students of the Bachelor’s Degree in Physics with a mention in Astronomy can be introduced to schoolchildren, and from the undergraduate level they begin to interact with the establishments of Antofagasta.”
“I start I learn” It is the project that was awarded second place presented by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Laboratory, USQAI Coquimbo, which is about a podcast that was born at the initiative of the monitors. María Fernanda Roco Irarrázaval, USQAI Coquimbo Coordinator, explained that this initiative was born to encourage entrepreneurship and publicize success stories. “The idea is that students can publicize their own ventures. As in the case of Circular Economy initiatives that are currently being developed. We want the community to learn a little more by listening to the podcasts and thus encourage scientific-technological-based entrepreneurship.”
The third award-winning project was “School complementary reading: facilitating access to our community”proposed by the Dr. Edith Romero Ibáñez Library of UCN Coquimbo, and the Department of Communications.
In this context, Daler Farías Rojas, Head of Specialized Reference and Multimedia at the Library, stated that, “we hope to connect with the community, that is our main objective. Promote reading, especially thinking about our officials who need that support with their sons and daughters. We want to facilitate access to the physical book, as well as encourage reading in the little ones.”
