Announcement

Winners of the 2021 Joint Committee ESO–Government of Chile funds announced

19 November 2021

As part of its long-standing cooperation agreement with Chile, ESO provides and manages an annual fund that awards projects dedicated to the development of scientific, technological and educational research and cooperation in astronomy throughout the country. Following two calls for proposals, the Joint Committee ESO–Government of Chile 2021 has now selected 22 national and regional projects fitting these criteria, awarding a total of 600 million Chilean pesos (about €650 000).

The 2021 national call had 19 winning projects. The funds will support postdoctoral programmes and academic positions in astronomy in Chilean institutions, scientific visits by national and foreign researchers, the construction of technology for astronomy and related disciplines, as well as educational programmes for the teaching and dissemination of this science in Chile.

Among this year’s winners, is a project to promote astronomy engagement amongst underrepresented and lower income communities in Cerro Navia, a municipality in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. In addition, the ESO—Chile Committee will continue to support the Chilean Astronomy Olympiad, which promotes astronomy education throughout the country.

Starting this year, to the traditional national call that has been made since 1996, a regional call has been added focusing on the Coquimbo and Antofagasta regions. The idea of this new annual call is to promote and focus the role of astronomy as a development tool in the regions where all ESO observatories are located.

The regional call had three winning projects. In the Antofagasta region, the Committee will finance the professional design of the "Photons Valley'' Astronomical Interpretation Center, an initiative promoted by the Likancabur scientific cultural group that seeks to build a space for visitors in the heart of the Atacama Desert. In Coquimbo, academics from the University of La Serena were awarded funds to investigate and share the knowledge and world view of indigenous and rural groups in the region. The third project, by the Central University of Antofagasta, aims to promote astronomy through the arts.

The ESO—Government of Chile Joint Committee makes a sustained contribution to the development of astronomy in the country through annual competitive funds and is made up of representatives of ESO and the Government of Chile, through the Directorate of Energy, Science and Technology and Innovation (DECYTI) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the participation of the National Research and Development Agency (ANID) of Chile and board members of the Chilean Astronomy Society (SOCHIAS). For the regional call, the Regional Secretariats of the North Central and North Macrozones of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation were included.

The proposals of the Joint Committee of ESO–Chile 2021 awarded at the national level are:

Nombre de proyecto	Investigador/a principal	Institución
Uncloaking the Fossil Relics of the Milky Way with SDSS-V	José G. Fernández Trincado	Universidad Católica del Norte
Milliarcsecond-resolution observations of the dust-forming atmosphere and the circumstellar envelope of cool evolved stars	Keiichi Onaka	Universidad Andrés Bello
Dust Substructures in Protoplanetary Disks and their impact on Planet Formation	Laura Pérez	Universidad de Chile
Probing the circumnuclear environment of supermassive black holes	Claudio Ricci	Universidad Diego Portales
The Event Horizon and Environs Sample: beyond SgrA* and M87	Neil Nagar	Universidad de Concepción
Study of AGN with asymmetric, variable and/or strange Balmer emission lines.	Patricia Arevalo	Universidad de Valparaíso
A new doctoral program in Astrophysics and Astroinformatics at Universidad de Antofagasta	Médéric Boquien	Universidad de Antofagasta
Strengthening the new astrophysics group at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María	Matthias R. Schreiber	Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
Visit of Dr. Elena Redaelli to strengthen and boost the collaboration among MPE and Chilean Institutions	Stefano Bovino	Universidad de Concepción
Túnel Universo Accesible	Valeria Vera	Fundación Tiempos Nuevos
Club Observatorio Astronómico Comunal “Barrancas” en Cerro Navia	Guillermo Retamales Gonzáles	Municipalidad de Cerro Navia
“Round or Flat?” - Measuring together the Earth radius from Chile to Canada	Rodrigo Herrera-Camus	Universidad de Concepción
Equipo Pedagógico CIRAS: cerrando brechas entre la astronomía y el aula	Carla Hernández Silva	Universidad de Santiago de Chile
II National Conference of Astronomical Education	Angie Barr Domínguez	Sociedad Chilena de Astronomía
MOONS Software Integration and Commissioning	Manuela Zoccali	Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Two engineers for light-weight astronomical mirror development	Amelia Bayo	Universidad de Valparaíso
Education, Assessment and Modelling of Light Pollution in the vicinity of the major Astronomical Observatories in Northern Chile through a network of devices for Citizen Science	Guillermo Damke	Universidad de La Serena
Olimpiadas de Astronomía y Astronaútica	Marcelo Mora	Sociedad Chilena de Astronomía
Breaking the Barriers III (Rompiendo las barreras III)	María Fernanda Durán Sierra	Sociedad Chilena de Astronomía

The proposals of the Joint Committee of ESO–Chile 2021 awarded at the regional level are:

Nombre de proyecto	Investigador/a principal	Institución
Diseño del proyecto Valle Fotones	Eduardo Unda-Sanzana	Agrupación Científico-Cultural Likancabur
Astronomía y patrimonio cultural en la Región de Coquimbo	Rodolfo Barbá	Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena
Arte, teatro, música y astronomía	Paulina Troncoso	Universidad Central