Facts and figures

The Republic of Chile hosts world class astronomy facilities in the Atacama Desert including the ALMA radio telescope and the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal

Observatory^[1]. Chile has also adopted the 2022 Declaration of Puntas Arenas recognizing the country’s southern regions as a natural laboratory for observation, study and adaptation to climate change.^[2]

Chile has 61 state and private universities.^[3]The University of Chile in Santiago was founded in 1842 and is the country’s oldest. It has 16 faculties and three interdisciplinary institutes and attracted 46,937 students in 2021.^[4]

National enrolment in universities exceeded 1.3 million in 2023 with female participation of 53.5% representing a 2.5% increase in female enrolment over the previous year. Doctoral students comprised less than one per cent of total enrolment.^[5]

In 2020, estimated gross expenditure on R&D was 675 billion pesos or 0.33% of GDP. Government and the business sector accounted for a third of the total each and the higher education / non-profit sector one quarter.^[6] About 16,300 people in Chile were employed in R&D work in 2020.^[7]

Most patents in Chile are filed from abroad, with 2,764 patent applications submitted by non-residents and 3,136 total applications filed in 2022 to the Instituto Nacional de Propiedad Industrial (INAPI) .^[8]

The Chilean government created the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation in 2018 and published a national strategy in 2022^[9] with the vision of strengthening the country’s research ecosystem. Government R&D expenditure in Chile is undertaken through two funding agencies: the Chilean economic development agency (CORFO) and the National Agency of Research and Development (ANID).

A scientific and technological cooperation agreement was signed in 2002, allowing Chile to participate in the European Commission research and innovation programmes.^[10]

EMBO and Chile’s cooperation agreement commenced in 2018.