President Piñera launches the new Science and Technology Ministry
The President of Chile has appointed Andrés Couve as the first Science Minister and named Carolina Torrealba the undersecretary. The new ministry will promote science, technology and innovation and contribute to Chile’s development, strengthening its national and regional identity and environmental sustainability.
Today President Sebastián Piñera launched Chile’s new Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation Ministry. Its purpose is to contribute to development and increase the cultural, educational, social and economic heritage of Chile and its regions, strengthening its national and regional identity and environmental sustainability.
“This ministry has been set up to help us prepare our society so that we can find ways to achieve better standards of living,” the President said during an activity at La Moneda Palace that was attended by ministers, government officials, people from the world of science and members of civil society.
President Piñera appointed Andrés Couve Correa to the position of Science Minister. Mr. Couve holds a doctorate in Biology and is a full professor at Universidad de Chile, where he works in the Department of Neuroscience at the Medical School and directs the Biomedical Neuroscience Millennium Institute.
The undersecretary will be Carolina Torrealba Ruiz-Tagle, a biologist who holds a doctorate in Cellular Biology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Ms. Torrealba served as the Executive Director of the “Millennium” Scientific Initiative, a program of the Economy Ministry.
“We are going to use this ministry to unleash the forces of freedom, creativity, imagination, innovation, and enterprise that live in the heart and soul of every Chilean,” President Piñera said.
The new ministry’s main goals will be to advise and collaborate with the President on the design, formulation, coordination, implementation and evaluation of policies, plans and programs designed to promote and strengthen science, technology, and innovation derived from scientific-technological research.
It also will encourage knowledge and innovation with a scientific-technological foundation to enrich public policy formulation and implementation processes, promoting coordination and collaboration among ministries and regions, as well as the development of joint initiatives in the public sector and public-private cooperation.
Its functions will include proposing science, technology and innovation policies with a scientific-technological foundation to the President, promoting research and generating knowledge in science and technology, as well as technological development and innovation.
It will also be responsible for creating and building the human, infrastructure and institutional capacities for developing science, the arts and the humanities; training professionals and researchers and contributing to the creation of scientific culture and the understanding, appreciation and dissemination of science, research, technology and innovation in Chile; and promoting the gender perspective and equitable participation of men and women in all areas of science.