Investigación

The construction of the world's largest radio telescope began several years ago as part of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO).

Two R&D initiatives proposed by the University of Santiago, Chile, were awarded the 2025 Technology Centers for Innovation Competition, organized by ANID, in which six proposals were selected nationwide.
The call for proposals funds the creation and strengthening of technology centers for innovation, with a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach, aimed at addressing challenges in the country's productive sectors. The aim is to contribute to sustainable development and strengthen the national ecosystem of science, technology, knowledge, and innovation (CTKI).

Through the Corfo "Crea y Valida" (Create and Validate) program, a high-impact collaboration between Usach’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, Cedenna, and Clínica Pasteur is advancing. This pioneering Chilean project focuses on the laboratory cultivation of corneal limbal stem cells—pluripotent-like cells capable of regenerating the ocular surface in patients suffering from severe corneal blindness.

On March 13, 1989, a powerful solar storm caused the entire power grid in the province of Quebec, Canada, to collapse, leaving millions without electricity. In just ninety seconds, a massive cloud of charged particles from a solar explosion struck Earth's magnetosphere, generating a geomagnetic storm that completely paralyzed the system. The outage was not due to a technical failure or overload, but rather to this intense space weather event.

Industries such as transportation, logistics, mining, fishing, and agriculture rely heavily on satellite connectivity and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), where geolocation accuracy is vital for operations. However, these technologies are vulnerable to solar activity, which can trigger disturbances leading to significant positioning errors, communication outages, or failures in critical infrastructure.

Just a few years ago, electric vehicles felt like a futuristic promise. Today, they are a global reality, and Chile is rapidly adopting them—most recently evidenced by Copiapó becoming the country's first city with a 100% electric public transport system. While this technology represents a vital, cleaner alternative to traditional fuel, this shift to electromobility simultaneously creates new, complex environmental challenges that current systems are not yet equipped to handle.

Researchers from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology successfully designed a pyridinium salt molecule that is critical for molecular electronics. The molecule's key feature is its ability to perform reversible electrical switching even when immobilized on a surface.

Chile is actively positioning itself as a global leader in green hydrogen production and export, a clean fuel that is essential for national decarbonization and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. 

Thanks to its vast solar and wind energy potential, Chile is well-positioned to produce green hydrogen via water electrolysis. In this process, electricity from renewable sources such as solar panels or wind turbines is used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, producing a fuel that only emits water vapor as a waste product.

Dr. Jorge Castillo-Sepúlveda, academic at the FAHU School of Psychology and Vice Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies, together with Jhonathan Castro Pino, are leading the cutting-edge project entitled "Towards a river biopolitics: a case study of hydroelectricity from Itaipú," funded by the Usach Office for Scientific and Technological Research through its 2025 competition.

Open science has firmly established itself as one of the most significant transformations in the global scientific system. It actively promotes the accessibility, reusability, and transparency of publicly funded research results, greatly strengthening academic collaboration and the democratization of knowledge.

Currently, this essential vision has been promoted by the National Research and Development Agency (ANID) through its Open Access Policy, which seeks to have all Chilean universities make their research publications available in interoperable repositories.