The University of Cauca in alliance with institutions and community social organizations will develop two research projects related to the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic in education and food security.

The Collegiate Body of Administration and Decision OCAD of the Science, Technology and Innovation Fund FCTeI approved resources for two projects presented by the University of Cauca in alliance with different organizations in the call to face the pandemic and contribute to the economic and social reactivation from the country.

In this way, in the 86th session of the OCAD of the CTeI Fund of the General Royalties System, which was held on December 18, 2020, within the framework of the call for the strengthening of regional research and development capacities and Initiatives of CTeI and technology and knowledge transfer aimed at addressing problems derived from COVID-19 that opened the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the project “Strengthening of capacities of CTeI for Educational Innovation in Basic and Secondary Education, by using of the Video Content Recommendations Platform (vLRF) in official and private institutions of the municipality of Popayán - Cauca”prepared by the University of Cauca, the Ministry of Education of Popayán and the “Colegio Colombia Jardín Infantil Mafalda”, for a total value from $ 1,854,390,000.00

“Education is one of the areas that has been most impacted by COVID-19 and it is the one that may continue to have the greatest impact, given the need to gather people in closed spaces. The project seeks to improve student-teacher interactions in the training process and will be a support in the follow-up to obtain the competencies of each of the students”, expressed the project formulation team.

Likewise, for a total value of $ 2,395,383,533, the project presented by the University of Cauca was approved, in partnership with the Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation, the Mayor's Office of Popayán, the Popayán Municipality Peasant Association and the Natural Reserves Network ASOCAMPO called "Development of food and water security strategies for the economic reactivation of rural communities, through technology and knowledge transfer for innovation as a measure of attention to the Covid-19 emergency in Cauca".

The organizations allied to the initiative stated that one of the most important challenges, in the face of the problems derived from the COVID19 pandemic, is related to the availability of good quality food and water, both of which come from the rural Colombian territory. This need leads to the implementation of food and water security strategies for the economic reactivation of the communities of the municipalities of Popayán, Silvia, Totoró and Cajibío, Las Piedras and Palacé sub-basins and the attention to the problems derived from the current pandemic.

“To fulfill this purpose, work will be done in an applied and articulated way to build a comprehensive sustainable management model for food systems, generate efficient agro-ecological production processes in the use of water and soil protection and in the strengthening of governance processes and capacity to respond to crisis scenarios. In this sense, community environmental promoters, recently graduated professionals, doctoral students and members of research seedbeds will be linked with 1000 sensitized families and at least 8 community organizations linked to the project,”the researchers commented.

Both projects, which will be executed by the University of Cauca within a period of 24 months, show the Institution's commitment to research that forms alliances in an articulated process that identifies, assigns roles and commitments to provide solutions to the community and society.

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Vice-rectory for Investigations

Email :comunicacionesvri@unicauca.edu.co