The visit is part of the coordination of the 2026 SIPLA Annual Conference, which will be held at UCSC and will focus on green hydrogen and its regulatory challenges, as well as its implications for Latin America.

During the day, the SIPLA team toured the Energy Centre's facilities and reviewed the progress, capabilities and lines of research that the University is promoting in this field. The activity also sought to understand the regional context of Biobío and identify how local developments can dialogue with the strategic vision that will be projected at the conference, both for Chile and for the region.

The event included a working meeting with the participation of Dr. Antonio Brante, Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies; Andrés Varela, Vice-Rector for Community Relations; Christian Schmitz Vaccaro, academic at the UCSC Faculty of Law; Dr. Ricardo Lizana Fuentes, Director of the UCSC Energy Centre; Nelson Rojas Velis, Head of the Technology Transfer Office; and, on behalf of the Energy Centre, Executive Director Mauricio Arenas Crisostomo and researchers Dr. Eduardo Espinosa Neira (SMIEEE) and Dr. Samuel Vergara Rojas. The meeting addressed opportunities for coordination, institutional projections, and challenges related to the deployment of green hydrogen and technological innovation in the region.

This coordination reinforces UCSC's commitment to areas of high potential for regional and national development, promoting alliances that position it as a key player in innovation, regulation, and energy transition. In this context, SIPLA highlighted that, in addition to its academic agenda and regional dialogue, it promotes research projects related to sustainability and innovation in Latin America.

Among these, the project ‘Intellectual Property, Regulation and Innovation in Hydrogen Technologies in Latin America’ was highlighted, aimed at analysing how intellectual property and competition frameworks can promote —or eventually limit— the development of the hydrogen economy in the region. The initiative examines the patent landscape, the risks of technological concentration and opportunities to strengthen regional innovation, providing evidence and recommendations for public and private decisions in a key sector for Latin America's energy transition.