The aim is to educate citizens from a scientific point of view and make visible the research generated in the institution, as well as the training programs for specialists on topics relevant to the territory.

“Sharing Knowledge to improve life” is at the center of the work of the University of La Serena. That is why the institution formalized the Office of Dissemination and Dissemination of Sciences and Technology in 2019.

Under the auspices of the Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies, it becomes an important specialized channel for the Dissemination and Dissemination of knowledge originating in the different research areas of the University of La Serena.

“It is very relevant that knowledge-generating institutions disseminate and disseminate what their academics carry out in terms of fundamental research, as well as knowledge transfer. It is necessary to understand that scientific research is of public interest and is vital to understand, for example, the water cycle, treat diseases, create new products, etc.” explained the Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies, Dr. Eduardo Notte.

The Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies added that all funding agencies require that research not only be shared in academic journals, given that people in general do not have access to it. “One of the objectives of the Office of Dissemination and Dissemination of Sciences and Technology is precisely to support researchers in carrying out the dissemination and dissemination that they need to reveal their research,” he emphasized.

Due to the notable advances that the University of La Serena has had in research, obtaining the best scientific productivity rates in its history, it is necessary to encourage and specialize, among other things, the dissemination and dissemination of research, developing and implementing models of linkage with the internal and immediate environment.

For the Coordinator of the Dissemination Office, Mg. M° Alejandra Leyton, it is important “that an institution like ours, which has maintained significant growth in scientific production, in recent years, shares this knowledge with the community, allowing it to learn and get to know the research work of the University of their region.”

The team is made up of professionals from different areas of knowledge, carrying out comprehensive work, with a broad perspective. It has professionals from the area of ​​Education and Communications, who generate Diffusion and Dissemination content for the research generated at the University.

The office already has dissemination material developed by different researchers at the University. The entomology expert Jaime Pizarro-Araya, who is an academic at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of La Serena and a researcher at the Laboratory of Ecological Entomology (LEULS), details that “every day there are more ULS researchers who, in addition to publishing in journals high impact, they give the opportunity for non-specialists to know what they do, and, on the other hand, to bring their knowledge to broader sectors of the population, this is fundamental in the process of culturalization of our society. The dissemination of science aims to make knowledge more universal, and for the ULS this is a commitment to our community.”

For his part, Dr. Ronny Martínez, academic and researcher at the Department of Food Engineering at the ULS, with whom the outreach office has worked constantly, pointed out that “it is an important step to position the University as an entity that contributes continually to society. One of the most important links in the chain of scientific research is dissemination, in this way we can publicize the results of our projects and allow the knowledge generated to be used by people, in addition to motivating the incorporation of children and young people. to a scientific and technological career. The Office of Scientific Dissemination fills this much-needed niche.”

The University, in its corporate narrative, has declared the purpose of opening, through access to knowledge, opportunities for transformation to people and society, so that they expand their expectations and positively change their lives; through the transformation of academic work into dissemination formats with an educational focus, rigorous and friendly.

Written by Sergio Muñoz, Office for the Dissemination and Diffusion of Science and Technology