Non university sources of science in Chile

The following ideas are widely accepted in Chile with respect to scientific activity: is carried out mainly in universities and science is considered a naturally university activity, that was developed in a period of more than 150 years by isolated individual efforts, c) it was transformed into an institutionalized activity at the universities after the university reform movement at the end of the 1960 decade, d) the activity is finally institutionalized in the country with the creation of the “Comisión Nacional de Investigatión Científica y Tecnológica, CONICYT (National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research) in 1967. This work presents preliminary findings showing that there are other institutional initiatives, different to the efforts from universities and directly dependent of the Chilean Government, in order to produce science and technology in Chile. This governmental initiatives start at the beginning of the Republic of Chile circa of 1810.