16 Mar SECOS Five-Year Evaluation Projects Its Continuity for the Next Five Years
The Millennium Science Initiative conducted the evaluation of the first stage of the Millennium Institute in Coastal Socio-Ecology, which involved strong participation from researchers and professionals of the ANID center of excellence, as well as international peer reviewers. The process reviewed the institute’s main milestones in terms of scientific productivity, researcher training, collaboration networks, and engagement with society, projecting the center’s work for its next five years.
The Millennium Institute in Coastal Socio-Ecology (SECOS) received the results of the evaluation of its first five years after successfully passing the Five-Year Evaluation carried out by the Millennium Science Initiative (ICM). This process assesses the performance of excellence institutes in their fifth year of operation and defines their projection for a second five-year period.
The evaluation included a visit from an international committee of experts, held on Monday, November 3, 2025, at the facilities of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. During the visit, the panel reviewed the institute’s main achievements and results since its creation in December 2020, as well as its proposed work plan for the 2026–2031 period.
During the meeting, several aspects of the institute’s work were analyzed, including its scientific impact and productivity, the training of early-career researchers, national and international collaboration networks, institutional management, and outreach and public engagement initiatives.
The visit included presentations, meetings, and discussion spaces with members of the team, involving principal investigators, associate researchers, early-career researchers, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate and graduate students, and executive staff.
Institutional representatives from the six universities associated with SECOS were also present: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad Católica del Norte, Universidad de Concepción, Universidad Andrés Bello, Universidad Santo Tomás, and Universidad del Desarrollo.
Productivity and Collaboration
During its first years of work, SECOS has promoted interdisciplinary research aimed at understanding and addressing the challenges of coastal sustainability in Chile. Currently, the institute brings together a community of more than 90 researchers, professionals, and students from different disciplines and universities across the country.
In its first five years, SECOS researchers have published more than 350 scientific articles in leading journals, with strong collaboration among institute researchers as well as with national and international groups. The integration of students and early-career researchers has also been a notable feature of this work.
In this regard, more than 120 undergraduate and graduate students have been part of the institute. This academic community—composed of approximately 65% graduate students and 35% undergraduate students—has shown sustained growth in productivity and autonomy. In 2024 alone, students led 12 scientific publications, most of them in high-impact journals (Q1).
Another highlight is the sustained gender equity across the organization, particularly at the doctoral level, where the participation of women researchers doubled during the period. This has been supported by the successful acquisition of national ANID scholarships and active interdisciplinary collaboration in areas such as artisanal fisheries, aquaculture, and coastal development.
In terms of partnerships, with close to twenty formal collaborations and a broad network of informal connections, SECOS maintains alliances with academic institutions, public agencies, non-governmental organizations, consulting firms, and actors from the productive sector, both in Chile and internationally. In addition, it maintains numerous informal collaborations that have supported joint research, field campaigns, researcher training, and knowledge co-production projects focused on coastal sustainability.
The renewal for a new five-year period will allow these research lines to be consolidated and expanded, strengthening the generation of scientific knowledge and its contribution to the sustainable management of coastal socio-ecological systems.