The grant finances cooperation between Latin American and French institutions for international seminars and modules.

Yachay Tech University is the only Ecuadorian institution participating in a project that is the winner of the 2019 PREFALC grant. This financing program is a device for university cooperation to develop faculty internships and exchanges between French, Latin American and/or Caribbean universities. The project in which Yachay Tech participates, is titled RÉSEAU NANO-FEVB, and has a total financing amount of 55,050 euros, of which PREFALC co-finances 22,200 euros. The project will be coordinated by Yachay Tech University and the University of Montpellier and will have the participation of Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela, and Universidad Federal de Río Grande del Sur, Brazil. In the2019 call for projects, only 5 projects were selected.

The program will be coordinated by Camilo Zamora-Ledezma, Ph.D., professor of the School of Physical Sciences and Nanotechnology at Yachay Tech (Ecuador) and by Rozenn Le Parc, Ph.D., of the University of Montpellier (France). PREFALC projects are valid for two years. The general purpose of the grant program is to promote faculty mobility for international seminars and modules.

The aim of the RÉSEAU NANO-FEVB is to create a collaboration network between France and Latin America on nanomaterials. In this sense, the project seeks to gather academics with interdisciplinary abilities to approach potential applications of nanotechnology in fields related to life sciences, environment, and energy. The network will allow students to access a wide offer of training in nanomaterials that includes the perspective of sustainable development. Likewise, the projects will provide researchers with the opportunity to have discussion spaces that allow leading global reflections on the field of nanotechnology and its potential applications in solving specific problems of society.

For 2020, the project will have 3 activities carried out by the participating institutions. The first is the School of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 2020 (ENANO2020) that will take place in Caracas, Venezuela, in February. The second is the school on nanomaterials applications that will be developed at Yachay Tech University, Urcuquí – Ecuador, in the same month. The third activity is composed by the FLOW School and the international nanomaterials week and its applications in the fields of energy and eco-design, scheduled for October at the University of Montpellier.