The PROA R&D 3 program, co-developed by the Navy’s Center for Technological Innovation and Know Hub Chile, is now accepting applications to connect university research capabilities with institutional challenges and testing environments that are unique in the country.
With the goal of aligning university research with high-tech challenges, the Navy’s Center for Technological Innovation (CiTA) and Know Hub Chile have launched the call for proposals for PROA R&D 03, a program now in its third year that invites teams from Chilean universities to develop solutions to meet the needs of the Navy.
The initiative is supported by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) and the Corporation for the Promotion of Production (Corfo), and is aimed at research teams whose technologies have a validated technology readiness level (TRL) of 2 or higher.
Throughout the process, participants receive methodological guidance to strengthen their projects and have the opportunity to test their developments in the Navy’s operational environments—a rare experience for national scientific research.
Since its inception, PROA R&D has sought to bridge the gap that often exists between the work carried out in laboratories and the needs of those who will use these technologies. To this end, the program facilitates collaboration between researchers and Navy specialists, allowing proposals to be tailored to technical and operational requirements before moving on to the funding and scaling-up phases.
A Success Story in Acoustic Processing
The program’s success is evident in the results of previous cycles. In PROA R&D 2, three teams from the first semester were able to move forward with developing proposals for external funding for ANID’s national IDeA R&D competition, while in the second semester, two other teams submitted applications. Among the initiatives awarded funding by ANID is the project “Deep Learning-Based Beamforming for Acoustic Monitoring,” led by researcher Néstor Becerra of the University of Chile.
This development consolidates advanced capabilities in the processing of acoustic measurements, which are applied to underwater monitoring and the identification of fault-related noises in industrial systems. CiTA participates as an associate entity, providing access to suitable infrastructure for the validation and pilot testing of algorithms developed by academia.
The head of CiTA’s Early-Stage Projects Division, First Lieutenant Diego Lledó, notes that one of the objectives of the PROA R&D program is “to create opportunities for collaboration between academia and the Navy, building bridges so that research can progress toward practical applications.”
Jovanka Trebotich, director of innovation and technology transfer at Know Hub Chile, explains that the value of this collaboration lies in bridging the gap between laboratory research and its practical application.
“Our experience shows that scientific proposals gain technical rigor when they are tested against real-world scenarios at an early stage. By providing validation methodologies and connecting scientists with the stakeholders who face these challenges, we enable projects to mature more quickly and submit highly competitive proposals for government grant programs,” he says.
Call for Applications
The call for proposals, which remains open until September 12, is interdisciplinary in nature and accepts proposals from the fields of engineering, natural sciences, health, agricultural sciences, and the social sciences. Applicant teams must have at least three members with complementary skills who are available to participate in technical follow-up sessions.
The program focuses on providing detailed methodological guidance and enabling access to the Navy’s validation platforms, allowing scientists to calibrate their technologies under real-world conditions before applying for public funding in 2027.
During the process, participants will work on identifying needs, validating the solution with users, adapting the proposed solution to the technical and operational requirements identified, and preparing project proposals in anticipation of future calls for public funding for applied research.
The rules, requirements, and complete schedule are available at: https://dualhub.cl/proa-id/