The group is led by INIA researcher Claudio Balbontín, and consists of a total of 31 institutions associated with water management in Chile. The future objective is to strengthen the network and replicate this model of collaboration in other priority areas of scientific development.

The efficient use of water resources is a matter of utmost relevance for our country and a priority for scientific endeavors in a world that seeks to face climate change. According to the Water Resources Research Network (H2O Network), 70% of the national Gross Domestic Product needs water to survive. In this context, the work of the H2O Network was awarded an important award during the development of the Ideas ConCiencia contest, which was awarded by the Commission of Science and Technology, of the Chamber of Deputies, within the framework of the Future Congress, that is being carried out in the former National Congress.

The Network was created under the auspices of the National Council for Development Innovation (CNID) and is made up of a significant number of researchers from 31 research institutions, including INIA, with the participation of Drs. Claudio Balbontín and Gabriel Selles, experts in the use of water resources of the institution ,. During the award ceremony, the president of the Chamber of Deputies' Science and Technology Commission, Giorgio Jackson, presented a diploma to the Water Resources Research Network in recognition of the "Best project of the year" in the Ideas ConCiencia call. This will mean greater involvement between the institutions of the Network and strong support for decision-making by authorities regarding the improvement of the use of water for different uses in the country.

Claudio Balbontín, INIA researcher, stressed that “this is a tremendous achievement for our collaboration network. Currently, we have the satellite agricultural platform that has been developed thanks to the interaction we have achieved with the Network among many initiatives related to water resources that have been accompanied through the CNID. From the Chamber of Deputies they called on research institutions to present ideas to support decision making in the political world and we participate with enthusiasm and effort. INIA's work goes from the water-agriculture relationship, but in this Network we also find other optics such as water-industry, water-natural resources, water-mining, in short, many visions of water use and our duty is to improve efficiency in all these productive dimensions, ”said Balbontín.

For his part, Gabriel Sellés, Coordinator of the National Horticulture Program of INIA and researcher at the INIA La Platina Regional Center, believes that the key to the H2O Network is to coordinate initiatives to add capacities. “We see with enthusiasm how an interesting fabric of support is being built to strengthen the scientific world in Chile, which often tends to compete, rather than collaborate, because the work is scattered. There are a significant number of researchers working on this issue from different perspectives and with this Network of institutions we will see the complexity of the problems and how to address them in an integrated way, ”said the INIA researcher.

Likewise, Xaviera De la Vega, Advisor in the area of ​​Environment and Sustainability of the Executive Secretariat of the CNID, who coordinates this Network, points to the role that the Ministry of Science will play in the future articulation of scientific capabilities. “We believe that with the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation this collaborative form would have to be strongly supported. We believe that in priority issues for our country, as is the case of water resources, this will happen and we expect the same in new areas of development, ”he explained.

The objective of the Ideas ConCiencia contest, which was launched six months ago, is to receive initiatives that can become a matter of law, a public policy or that help accelerate innovation and knowledge generation in Chile. The H2O Network competed with a hundred other projects from other areas of interest for scientific development and together with the financing of the project will be awarded a visit to the ALMA astronomical center, accompanying some scientists who are participating in the Future Congress.

About INIA

The Agricultural Research Institute (INIA) is the main agricultural research institution in Chile, linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, with national presence of Arica to Magallanes, through its 10 Regional Centers, in addition to technical offices and experimental centers in each from the regions of the country. Its mission is to generate and transfer strategic knowledge and technologies on a global scale, to produce innovation and improve the competitiveness of the agri-food sector.