The National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) announced the results of the Fondef IDeA 2026 Technological Research Competition (Fondef IT), a call for proposals in which the University of Santiago de Chile was awarded two R&D projects from the Faculty of Engineering.
Accounting for 16.67% of all applications submitted by our university, these selected projects sustain the institution's track record of success and reinforce its presence within the funding program.
These results also point to a positive trajectory across recent editions of the competition. In 2024, Usach submitted 11 proposals and secured funding for one—a 9% success rate—whereas in 2025, submissions rose to 15 with two projects funded, boosting the success rate to 13%.
Backed by a total budget of over $613,000,000 CLP across 24 months, both awarded initiatives will bring together industry partners—including GEOCOM S.A., Arian S.A., Stalus Group, and Soluciones Tecnológicas CITEC 2.0 Ltda.—to drive the development and validation of solutions with real-world potential.
According to Dr. Andrea Mahn Osses, Usach’s Vice Rector for Research, Innovation, and Creation, this milestone underscores the established expertise of the institution's research teams in areas vital to the country's productive development
“These results demonstrate our researchers' ability to transform scientific and technological knowledge into concrete solutions for challenges that are strategic not only nationally, but also on a global scale. Specifically, the projects tackle highly complex issues in mining and geodesy by integrating innovation and capabilities developed at our university in collaboration with public and private sector partners,” explained Dr. Mahn.
Awarded Projects
1. Scaling up an intelligent modular system that enables the autonomous operation of rock drills in complex mining environments
Led by Dr. John Kern, a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering, this project involves Arian S.A., Stalus Group, and Soluciones Tecnológicas CITEC 2.0 Ltda. as partner entities.
Dr. Kern notes that “this award represents a decisive step toward advancing the digital transformation of the mining industry through locally developed technologies. Our goal is to bring Rocafit-ML to a validation stage under real operating conditions, demonstrating that artificial intelligence, robotics, and multisensor perception can solve critical productivity and safety challenges in the sector.”
He adds that “beyond technological advancement, we seek to bring this innovation closer to industrial adoption, strengthening the link between applied research, production needs, and national sustainable development.”
2. GNSS Technology Solution for the Continuous Determination of Physical Elevations in Seismic Environments, Interoperable with Multiple Elevation References
Spearheaded by Dr. José Antonio Tarrío, a faculty member in the Department of Geospatial and Environmental Engineering, the research involves GEOCOM S.A. as a partner organization, with collaboration from the Military Geographic Institute.
“Because Chile has varying elevation reference levels across its terrain, this project aims to develop a geodetic technological tool to standardize how these elevations are handled, incorporating satellite imagery and complementing it with the ADELA deformation model we created in a previous study,” Dr. Tarrío explains.
This solution will improve the accuracy of geographic work, with implications for mining, engineering, public works, and agriculture, among other sectors.