World Bank on the Chile MSI

The MSI Program sought to revitalize Chile's science and technology system by supporting advanced training of human capital by world class scientists engaged in cutting edge research. It sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of transparent merit-based allocation procedures and investigator autonomy in improving the quality and efficiency of scientific research and training. The Learning and Innovation Loan (LiL) from the World Bank partly financed a competitive fund to support three world-class research groups (Science Institutes) and ten emerging groups of high quality (Science Nuclei), providing adequate levels of medium term funding to enable the best scientists to compete with their international peers. The aim was to allow these centers and groups to perform frontier scientific research and provide training to graduate and postgraduate fellows. The program was also designed to disseminate the new knowledge through education and extension programs, links with the private sector and partnerships with other institutions. Article here.