Fifteen years ago, on December 26, 2006, Conicet decided to launch the Conicet Santa Fe Science and Technology Center (CCT), a pilot organization for the new national structure the organization had designed. As of that date, the growth in terms of technical and human resources has been remarkable, and today it is one of the largest in the country.
Dr. Carlos Peña, current director of Conicet Santa Fe, describes the impact in the region: “Today the CCT program covers Conicet’s work from the Uruguay River coast to the west of the Santa Fe province, and includes 20 institutes and research and transfer centers, linked to the region’s universities – UNL and UNER and UTN, UADER, UNER, INTA – and the provincial governments of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, and covers the areas of technological, biological, agricultural, computer and social networking.During this time of the pandemic, Conicet Santa Fe has been an important actor working for the health of the population and collaborating in the assessment of the social impact that The Covid-19 virus has brought us down.”
Significant change in the lives of research organizations
Regarding the anniversary, Mario Civitta, Senior Director of CCT, notes: “The introduction of CCTs into the Conicet structure in 2006 represented an important change in the lives of scientific research organizations in our country. Two words allow us to summarize this importance: institutionalization and consolidation, not Coincidentally, both words are verbs, saving the concepts of verb and immediacy that they involve.At the beginning of the century, Conicet was experiencing remarkable growth in terms of the number and size of implementing units (institutes) all over the country.The Governing Council considered this the appropriate moment to organize this group, adding the concept of regionalism to the idea of regionalizing connectivity. CCTs are then created, which are an intermediate resource management structure between the current management and the leadership of each executive unit.”
Conicet Santa Fe currently leads a board of directors of the 20 institutes that make up it. It is nourished by the work of more than 1,500 highly qualified people, constituting a wide area of influence in the production of scientific knowledge and technological development of the region.
Regional Center
In 1958, the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research – the largest institution in the country – was created with the aim of forming an academic body that would promote scientific and technological research in the country. The development of activity and the growth of the institution, in 1971, in the creation of regional centers, became a strategic project for assembling the necessary infrastructure for the creation of new institutes and laboratories, at the same time promoting the transfer of knowledge and training of human resources at the graduate level.
Within this framework, the Santa Fe Regional Center for Research and Development (Ceride) was established in December 1976, with the aim of forming a “science-technological pole” providing central services to the institutes that continued to merge.
institutes
From the opening of Inali in 1962, the first Conicet Institute in an Argentine province, until the present, scientific activity has been firmly rooted with the creation of the first institutes: for the Development of Chemical Engineering (INTEC) in 1975; Stimulation and Petrochemicals (INCAPE) 1978; in Argentine Architecture (INGAR) in 1980 and in 1999 the Instituto de Matemática Aplicada del Litoral (IMAL) was created. Being these five existing institutes, the first to incorporate Conicet Santa Fe.
Already in the twenty-first century, a new generation of institutes was created under the organizational umbrella of Conicet Santa Fe: in 2007, the National Institute of Industrial Lactology; In 2008, Instituto Agrobiotechnología del Litoral; In 2013, Center for Research in Computational Mechanics; Institute of Veterinary Sciences of the Sahel; Coastal Physics and Coastal Health and Environmental Physics; In 2014, Institute for Research in Signals, Systems, and Computational Intelligence; In 2015, the Institute of Humanities and the Institute of Social Sciences in Littoral. This important group was joined in 2016 by the Center for Scientific Research and Technology Transfer to Production, which was established in 1995 in the city of Diamante, Entre Ríos. Then, in 2016, the Institute of Applied Chemistry in Litoral appeared, in 2017, the Institute of Social Studies and the Research and Development Institute of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics; In 2019, the Littoral Institute of Agricultural Sciences, and finally in 2020, the Entre Ríos Institute of Food Science and Technology and the Milk Chain Research Institute.
CCT . property
In 2002, the growth of the cadre of scientists, professionals, technicians and scholarship holders, the proliferation of research projects and the need for services according to the times, led Ceride to take a new step and begin to relocate some of the services and institutes at its new 29-hectare site located in El Pozo, north of the National Road No. 168, named “Predio Conicet Santa Fe”.
In parallel and as a policy to promote knowledge transfer and links with the environment, the creation of the Litoral Centro Technology Park (PTLC) was promoted, a pioneering experiment in the state and today fully operational.
“The vision of Alberto Cassano, who struggled for the current facilities of the property, which bears his name, to become a reality,” said Conicet Santa Fe Deputy Director, Aldo Vecchietti, about a conglomerate unique in the country. It includes various actors such as research institutes, production companies and PTLC; The latter consists of the provincial and municipal governments of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, UNL, Conicet and CCT. All work in concert in scientific promotion and implementation.”
They carry out their daily activities at Conicet “Dr. Alberto Cassano “Over a thousand people including scientists, support staff, colleagues, associates, management staff and incubator companies.
the future
Conicet Santa Fe has grown a lot, incorporating equipment, infrastructure, personnel, and resources that allow it to provide more and better services to create knowledge. And this path of success is expected to increase in the coming years, buoyed by the recent approval of the National Science and Technology Financing Act. Legislation that increases funds allocated to research and whose application provides for an increase in the number of researchers, female researchers and cadres necessary to strengthen the scientific system and as a result of the economy and independence of our country.
The director concludes: “In the next two or three years we will build the new INLAIN building, finish closing the inner streets of the site with interlocking sidewalks, and continue to strive to improve staff working conditions, develop and adapt properties, increase service provision, and acquire new equipment for the scientific community, so that we continue to do science Quality and the transmission of acquired knowledge, in such a way that we contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of Argentines.”
Related
“Creator. Devoted pop culture specialist. Certified web fanatic. Unapologetic coffee lover.”