The current agreement between KU Leuven and the UFRO is one of the few agreements with a history of active cooperation, at the academic as well as the graduate student level.

Since 2009, the Universities KU Leuven in Belgium and Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) in Chile maintain two agreements that stand for constant exchange of knowledge between both institutions, through their undergraduate and graduate programs. One of these agreements is related to cooperation in research and the other one is linked to the possibility of obtaining a double degree in the doctoral program offered by the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Science of the UFRO.

On this occasion, two academics and researchers of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of KU Leuven, Dr. Constanza Parra, an Environmental Social Scientist, and Dr. Anton Van Rompaey, a full professor at the Department of Geography and Tourism, and an expert in Cartography and Analysis of the Landscape and Spatial Modeling, visited the university in order to expand the partnership in other fields of knowledge, since the department of the belgium institution brings together approaches of the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences itself, as well as of the fields of engineering and health.

In a meeting with Rodolfo Pihan and Dr. Adison Altamirano, the experts shared a brief presentation of the work of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of KU Leuven, and the way in which they carry out multiple studies and projects that are related to the work carried out by the faculty of the UFRO.

In this context, Dr. Constanza Parra comments that “the objective of this visit is to strengthen the cooperation that already exists and which different academics and researchers have been stimulating and promoting over the last few years. Unlike other visitors, we belong to the Faculty of Sciences. Before, the cooperation has taken place with the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, and now, our visit that has been possible thanks to the contact with Dr. Altamirano seeks to strengthen and expand our cooperation and to create new content.”

“The idea is to add new professors of the UFRO, who want to contribute to this inter-institutional cooperation, ideally students and academics of other units, who want to visit us in Belgium, either through exchanges or internships, as well as students from other disciplines of KU Leuven who want to come to Chile and to carry out interdisciplinary research, in which different issues of sustainability and environment come together by virtue of an interesting research that provides knowledge that can be applied in the Araucania Region in Chile," Dr. Parra pointed out.

Dr. Adison Altamirano emphasized that “the visit strengthens the academic exchange that already exists between these two institutions for about ten years. Including this visit, more than 10 academics of KU Leuven have already come to the UFRO Faculty and a similar number of Chilean academics have visited the university in Belgium. This fact is very satisfying, since this is an agreement that constantly organizes different activities. On the other hand, this is the first seminar we have organized together with both institutions, which is a very important step for our partnership.”

At the same time, Dr. Altamirano emphasized the connection that exists between the subjects of both institutions. He pointed out: “The research topics we mostly worked on address socio-ecological aspects, which are almost crossing to the fields of ecology and social sciences. In fact, they met with research groups and students of the Doctoral Program in Agri-Food Sciences and Environment, of which some students obtained a double degree and did internships. This is an extremely relevant topic because the visiting professors expressed their total confidence and willingness to host our students and researchers in the same way as it has happened before with our colleagues and graduate students.”

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Another purpose of the visit was the seminar “Challenges in Socio-Ecological Systems and their Relation with the Dynamics of the Landscape”, in which the researchers of KU Leuven, together with Dr. Paula Meli, a post-doctoral researcher of the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences of the UFRO, and Dr. Adison Altamirano presented their work.

The seminar brought a large number of professionals and experts together who were able to learn about quantitative issues, such as the estimation of forest degradation through remote sensing, or even more qualitative aspects related to environmental sustainability.

At the same time, the speakers from KU Leuven and the UFRO showed their advances in research, which turned out complementary in realities at the European, Latin American and local levels, as in the case of the Araucania Region in Chile. This diversity of topics allowed the participation of academics in the field of social sciences, who will be able to expand their cooperation with the university in Belgium in the near future.

“This is a great opportunity for students of the different doctoral programs of the UFRO, who can opt for a double degree, for example in Agri-Food Sciences and Environment, Applied Cellular and Molecular Biology, Natural Resource Sciences, and in Engineering with specialization in Bioprocesses. This is due to the fact that the double degrees are linked with the group of Science, Technology and Engineering”, Dr. Adison Altamirano explained.