Instruct-ERIC is delighted to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Universidad de Concepcion (UdeC) in Chile, the first MOU between Instruct and an institution in Chile.
The announcement comes shortly after Instruct established an MOU with CEBEM (Centro de Biología Estructural del Mercosur), the structural biology research network in Latin America.
As a result, UdeC is now the 22nd institution in a country outside Europe to be eligible for funded access to Instruct facilities through dedicated international calls, a key feature of Instruct MOU.
Maximiliano Figueroa, Associate Professor at UdeC, was central to the signature of the MOU, which came about as a condition of their visit to CEITEC through the latest Instruct-ERIC International Call.
Maximiliano commented: “This is probably the most important part of our recent visit to CEITEC in Czechia , that is facilitated the signature of the MOU with Instruct. Here in Chile we are only a few laboratories trying to study structural biology. Whilst the human resource is great, the infrastructure is not so strong. We are now the first university in Chile to sign an MOU with Instruct, so that is something very important for us as an institution, but also very important as Chileans, as now we can have access to people in Instruct facilities and to collaborate together”
The MOU will pave the way for future collaborations between UdeC and Instruct facilities, in both directions, with team members from CEITEC attending the UdeC Summer School in January on protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions using SPR.
Prof. Harald Schwalbe, Instruct-ERIC Director, commented: “Signing the MoU with our colleagues in Chile is a gem for the internationalisation strategy of Instruct. We look forward to fruitful exchange in the scientific important field, addressing major global challenges in biomedicine. On the Instruct side, I wish to thank our hub team for building bridges for long that now become solid thanks to signing this MoU.“
Instruct's collaboration with institutions in Latin America is supported by the EU-LAC ResInfra (Plus) project, which develops connections between Europe and Latin American research infrastructures.