Scientific and Technological Center of Valparaiso, CCTVal

“Basal” funding

In 2009, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM) developed a proposal and finally won a 5-year, US$10 million funding from the Chilean government for a Basal technology center.  This funding establishes the Scientific and Technological Center of Valparaíso (acronym in Spanish is CCTVal, for Centro Científico y Tecnológico de Valparaíso).

Only five projects in Chile were awarded the Basal funding in this round, formally offered by the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, on September 2009.  Previously, in 2008, eight centers had been awarded funding, among them the now prominent Center for Mathematical Modeling, CMM.

The Basal program of Chile’s CONICYT is the most important funding effort to date in the country, immersed in the government’s new strategy to strengthen scientific research and technology.  The program was created to fund centers of excellence in science and technology that must incorporate the participation of the private sector and count with international networks of collaboration.

Focus of CCTVal

The center created in Valparaíso consists of three groups:  (1) High-energy physics; (2) High-performance computing; (3) Power electronics.

The center involves collaborations with several international scientific organizations:  The Max-Planck Institute of Germany; the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland; and in the US, the Jefferson Laboratory in Virginia and the National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) in California.

Support for this PASI

The CCTVal has approved supplementary funding for this PASI in an amount nearing US$10,000.  These funds will be used to offer hosting (labs, AV equipment and staff, coffee breaks, speaker recognition dinner) and support for students coming from other Chilean cities to help with lodging in Valparaíso.