Once again Universidad de Chile led the list of projects approved in the IV Fondecyt Project Competition of Research Initiation 2009, with 29 of the 134 initiatives awarded by various institutions of higher education and research in the country, reaching 21.6% nationwide.
Out of the 29 projects of our University – that receive an amount close to $622 million for the first year of implementation- 10 are led by young researchers of FCFM, obtaining 34.5% of the initiatives awarded by Universitad de Chile .
The aim of this competition is to encourage and strengthen the development of scientific research and technological excellence through the promotion of new researchers, by funding research projects from two to four years duration in all areas of knowledge.
Besides Adriana Piazza (postdoc) and Maya Stein (Research Associate) of the CMM, the other scientists of the Faculty who were awarded in this version are: Eduardo Contreras (Geophysics), Andres Escala (Astronomy), Juan Escobar (Industrial) Rodrigo Espinoza (Materials Science), Claudio Falcón (Physics), Ziomara Gerdtzen (Biotechnology), Ricardo Herrera (Civil) and Gonzalo Palma (Physics).
Between 2006 and 2009 the School of Physics and Mathematical Sciences has a total of 33 projects granted.
In this Fourth Initiation Competition the disciplines awarded more projects were natural and exact sciences, with a 36.6% (49 projects); Technologies, with 33.6% (45 projects), and Social Sciences and Humanities, with 29.9% (40 projects). In the discipline of Technologies, the area of Engineering was the one that won the largest number of projects awarded (20).
