Award of the INCAR² Applied Research Center

INCAR² will be an applied research center focused on solutions that balance competitiveness, social welfare and sustainability, prioritizing the sustainable development of aquaculture. To this end it will cover topics such as advanced vaccines, disease control, animal welfare, climate change and the fisheries–ecosystem interaction, among others.

This Thursday, October 30, the National Agency for Research and Development, ANID, announced the results of four competitions run by its Centers and Associative Research division, among which the award of the Applied Research Center (CIA), INCAR², stands out.

“We are very pleased with the results, which maintain the leadership of the IMO, INCAR and Consorcio del Agua centers, plus the participation of the Universidad de Concepción as an associate in five other centers,” emphasized the Vice-Rector for Research and Development, Dr. Andrea Rodríguez Tastets, who added that “I cannot fail to thank the effort of these teams and of all the other teams that reached the interview stage or applied.”

“These competitions have become increasingly competitive and require a great deal of work,” the authority explained, “but they represent an opportunity to carry out research and development that responds to complex challenges, going beyond individual projects, and that distinguishes the capacities of institutions able to sustain them.”

“We are happy because we have not lost any of the centers, and we have joined other centers in a significant way. Now it remains for us to await the results of the centers of national interest to close the year well,” added Dr. Rodríguez.

Among the Applied Research Centers, the awarded UdeC proposal is the Interdisciplinary Center for Aquaculture Research, INCAR², led by the academic of the Department of Oceanography of the Faculty of Natural and Oceanographic Sciences and current Deputy Director of the INCAR Center, Dr. Cristian Gallardo-Escárate.

The first reaction, notes Dr. Gallardo-Escárate, is happiness: “but then comes the pride, the pride of having won without doubt one of the most competitive calls in our research system in Chile, because it clearly positions us as one of the best institutions at the national level, and therefore now comes the time to get to work.”

The academic thus refers to the work involved in preparing this type of project, of long months of effort, backed by the experience of the INCAR center. “It is work that has been going on for 12 years and where there has been institutional support from the Universidad de Concepción to carry out interdisciplinary science involving different areas of knowledge. It is 12 years of building a common interdisciplinary language, which now allows us to project it for the next 5 and 10 years.”

In its next stage, INCAR², the academic of the Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB), Dr. Ruben Avendaño-Herrera, will take over as Deputy Director, and in this new stage it will be an applied research center focused on solutions that balance competitiveness, social welfare and sustainability, prioritizing the sustainable development of aquaculture. To this end it will cover topics such as advanced vaccines, disease control, animal welfare, climate change and the fisheries–ecosystem interaction, among others.