Towards a research management model for Andean universities

Mimir Andino project meeting and public event held in Santiago with the support of the Chilean Rectors Conference (CRUCH)

The Mimir Andino project, an Erasmus+ capacity Building project for higher education, recently convened a partnership meeting in Santiago de Chile (7-9 October) to take important steps in defining a framework for managing research and innovation in universities in Colombia, Peru and Chile (a Research Management Model). This project is just completed its first year of activity, in which mapping studies have been done on research and innovation systems in the three involved countries, as well as field visits of teams of Latin American and European experts, which provided advice, support and observations on to the three countries. The project meeting in Santiago, which gathered managers of research and vice rectors of research from 9 universities – all project partners – as well as European partners (KTH Sweden, University of Roma la Sapienza and University of Extremadura) – was an occasion to discussion the outcomes of the first phase of the project and draft a road map toward designing a research management model that will help partner universities to professionalise and streamline how they management research and innovation.

Amongst the topics identified for the model are support structures for researchers, communication of research, knowledge transfer services and support for international collaboration. The Mimir Andino management model should also emphasis the importance of regional universities and research aimed at local and regional impact, as the partnership involves a number of regional universities with such missions.

The meeting was followed by a public event on ‘Managing research for internationalization and local development’, hosted by the Chilean Rector’s Conference, a Mimir Andino partner, at the University of Chile. The event targeted Chilean university staff managing research and innovation.

Mimir Andino is coordinated by the Association of Colombia Universities (ASCUN), with sopprt and co-coordination by OBREAL Global Observatory. More information: http://mimirandino.org