In his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” written in 1946, Viktor Frankl expresses inspiring concepts, such as “…It is a peculiarity of man, who can only live by looking to the future” or why the world is messed up but it will only get worse unless everyone does their best”.
In the midst of bad news, discouragement, everything that doesn’t work, young people leaving, it is our obligation to value those realities and stories that, despite everything, have managed to become symbols of excellence and prestige. , by force of work, discipline and merit. The Balseiro Institutefounded in 1955 and the IB50K contestwhich has just celebrated its twelfth edition, are some of those institutional constructions
According to him world BankArgentina it invests barely 0.46% of its GDP in Research and Development. To contextualize this figure, Israel allocates 5.44%, Korea 4.81% and Brazil 1.21%. For the world average, the percentage is 2.63. And the average for low- and middle-income countries is 1.86.
Going back to Argentina, more than 70% of this investment is made by the public sector. If investing in capital goods or expansions is extremely risky in a country with such changing rules, doing it in R+D+i (acronym for Research, Development and Innovation) is even less tempting for the private sector. The fact of not having a currency that serves at least as a unit of account makes it inevitable to add the exchange variable to the financial equation. This, added to the intangible nature of most of these projects, greatly increases the perception of risk in this type of investment.
When we lament the levels of poverty, we have to understand that the only effective tools to reduce it are education and investment. The combination of these is what will allow our young people to access the jobs of the future (of which more is talked about than what is concrete) and insert themselves into the formal economy.
This is the proposal of the IB50K, a contest that presents technology-based projects to society, formulated by young people from different universities and disciplines but that have innovation and high scientific quality in common.
Thus, projects like the one of sylvarum, winner of the first prize, which develops a plant electrostimulation system to improve the yield of intensive crops. Also RNAgro (second prize) with a non-transgenic technology to replace the use of agrochemicals in the cultivation of peanuts. Or Physens (third prize) with kinesio and physiatry equipment connected wirelessly, allowing remote rehabilitation of patients. And among the top ten we also find Shield that uses discarded batteries for ionizing radiation shielding systems in the nuclear industry, biotangowhich designed a platform of genomic and environmental variables that allows modeling crops such as peach and Orus with a continuous monitoring system of river flows that allows managing water risk.
The reason why this contest and the award ceremony that takes place in the austere assembly hall of the Balseiro Institute are so special is that they allow us to dream of a different country, where excellence and merit are rewarded. In which young scientists and professionals choose to put their knowledge at the service of improving health, the environment, people’s lives, and society. But that is not all. There are usually a few people on the jury who are really worth listening to.
This year the words of Dr. Conrad Varottofounder of INVAP, a company based in Bariloche, which exports cutting-edge technology to the world. Varotto, who in the late 1960s worked as a researcher at the Stanford Universitycaptured the essence of Silicon Valleyand, that it is the intertwining between the academic, the scientific and research fields, the industry and the capital. He had the early conviction that to make technology an adequate company structure was needed.
INVAP first turned to nuclear, producing enriched uranium and obtaining a key material for the reactors, zirconium sponge. also manufactured the reactor of the Bariloche Atomic Center, and exported similar developments to Peru and Algeria. And it continued to export state-of-the-art technology to the world. Some time later, he won a tender to develop and build a reactor for the production of radioisotopes for the treatment of cancer and other diseases
When the nuclear plan languished at the end of the 1980s, the company redirected its resources to space and manufactured, in collaboration with NASA, the first observation satellite, SAC-B. Also communication satellites such as ARSAT 1 and 2
This company continues to produce in Argentina, and employs many people.
In his brief but substantial presentation, Dr. Varotto, whose Jesuit training instilled in him the “leadership in love, explained the importance of knowledge to improve society as a whole, and the need to reward effort much more than success to ensure future achievements.
Having been born in Italy, in the midst of the bombings of World War II, he arrived in Argentina with his family at the age of nine. His father, an excellent welder, had been imprisoned for several years in a concentration camp. This man, whose humility highlights his greatness, concluded by telling those who had made up the different finalist teams: “There is nothing that Argentina has not given me. As long as there are young people like you, the country has hope.”
Perhaps, as Frankl suggests, it is worth looking at and embracing the future, hand in hand with young people who aspire to a better country. Perhaps thus, another Argentina is possible.
*Alicia Caballero is director of UCATec (UCA Technological Linkage Unit).
by Alice Caballero
