Trips and Events Program granted 45 subsidies

The call for the scientific-technological trips and events opened twice a year by UTNBA since 7 years ago, awarded a total of 45 subsidies in February, 20 of which were exclusively granted for international congress participation and 7 for organizing events both in the Campus and Medrano premises.

The scientific-technological trips and events program was created at the end of 2010 with the aim to boost research activities and spread the School’s scientific production.

Lic. Patricia Cibeira, UTN BA’s Secretary of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, explained that the distinctive feature of the scientific-technological trips and events program is that “it is financed from the School’s own produce so it is a big budget effort and shows the Dean’s -Guillermo Oliveto- decision since he took office to promote research activities as a strategic plan.”

Since the program has been active for some years now and is offered twice a year, the researchers can plan their participation in national and international congresses, according to their relevance.

The Trips and events program is divided into three categories, one of them is targeted for the submission of papers in national and international congresses; another category is for the organization of events; and a special category for students who are part of research projects.

 “Over the last few years, a total of 820 subsidies were granted. This call, whose registration is closed now and covers activities that will take place between March 1st and August 31st, granted subsidies for the organization of events in both the Campus and Medrano premises. This year, subsidies for international events were granted as well,” stated Cibeira.

These subsidies give visibility to the School’s scientific production and allow the researchers to move forward in their career.

 “The researcher career is highly formalized, specific qualifications are required to move forward. One of the background items that is taken into account is the participation in national or international congresses. A tool such as this not only boosts the School in the research field but also develops the researcher’s career,” the Secretary stated.

Researcher students

The third category is aimed at financing students’ participation in national and international congresses and internships in laboratories or courses suggested by the Director of the Reasearch and Development Project they is part of.

 “This category was incorporated in 2013 because the national and international events category is for submitting papers, which is difficult for a student who is in the beginnings of his research career,” the Secretary explained.

Although the Trips and Events program is a fundamental tool in the research promotion policy implemented by UTNBA, it is just one of the tools developed to support the researchers’ work.

Translations Center

The Translation Center, whose services are offered for free to all researchers, be it students, graduates or teachers, was created in 2014.

 “Our researchers handle the English language but there are certain rules for the submission of papers that result in the paper being returned to the authors for revision.  In this case, the Translation Center is of great importance. It is an initiative under the Academic Secretary and a contribution, an indirect financing from the School for this type of researcher activities,” Cibeira concluded.

The funds

UTN’s financial support for research projects derives mainly from the University’s funds. However, UTNBA complements these resources through programs such as Trips and Events and through the financial support for paper publications in high impact or peer-reviewed journals.

 “The costs for publication are high and in dollars. However, the publication is really necessary for the researcher’s career to move forward. In this sense, the School works on two aspects: one is the Translation Center support and the other is the funding for publications since there are only few external financial support programs for this type of publication activities,” explained the Secretary.

The publication of papers are very important because it is one of the requisites often demanded by external financial support programs.

External financial support

Currently, UTNBA is granted financial support for some research projects: “We have two EU active subsidies. One of them is the ACRE Project, with a financial support of almost 30,000 euros. And the other one is a 48,000-euro three-year financial support grant that started in 2015, targeted at ERANET.”

In this sense, Cibeira pointed out that financial support was obtained abroad for those projects because the School has been investing in training human resources for research since 2010.

 “Regarding UTN projects, in 2010 there were 47 active research projects, today there are 109. The number has increased more than 130% these years,” she concluded.