Policy Briefs

The Millennium Biomedical Neuroscience Institute (BNI) is an exemplary case of research Centers of Excellence in Chile. In 2019, the project called Knowledge production in contemporary Chile, began a collaboration with the BNI to analyze its organizational dimension and the activities organized by the Culture and Communications (C&C) unit —including the instrument of Strong Participation— as well as to identify its practical consequences in the scientific culture of the organization. This report presents the results of our evaluation of the organizational aspects of the Center and their impact on the scientific culture of the team members. The set of perceptions, expectations, interests, and organizational practices of its members served to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these types of institutions and, above all, to explore organizational instruments and strategies for the future design of these organizations. The country, where the Center is located, has experienced two socio cultural milestones (the social uprising on October 18th, 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic). Such is the context where scientists from BNI experienced C&C activities since the end of 2019.

The national system of science, technology, knowledge, and innovation needs to promote a culture of excellence that values the multidimensionality involved in scientific activity and fosters outreach activities in society and the productive sector. Strong Participation is an instrument for organizational development that allows systematizing, implementing, and evaluating actions to create, promote, and validate a multidimensional culture of excellence at research organizations. This instrument contributes to creating and institutionalizing a “culture of excellence” by recognizing, using, and incorporating the different dimensions of scientific activity. This instrument has proven to be effective in one research center of excellence; it is systematic and replicable, and it produces objective indicators to assess the research excellence culture.