Ecopetrol: Alliance between Ecopetrol and the Industrial University of Santander has benefited 374 students

With an agenda of talks open to the public, Ecopetrol and the Industrial University of Santander will hold on July 29 from 7:00 am the celebration of the six years of the Alliance ‘Under the same roof’, which unites these two institutions for the development of research projects on topics of interest to Industry, academia and society in general.

This initiative has allowed the participation of 374 undergraduate and graduate students from the UIS together with researchers from the Ecopetrol Innovation and Technology Center and has produced, among other outstanding results, a total of 2 patents granted, as well as 4 more patents in process, 166 academic papers (papers and theses) and 48 published scientific articles.

Likewise, within the framework of this Alliance, 27 cooperation agreements were signed with 11 technological products as a result that strengthen the capabilities of the Industry in topics such as corrosion and integrity of transport lines, analytical methodologies, geophysics, recovery factor, productivity and well stability, improvement of heavy crude, nanocomposites and nanotechnology, exploration in Colombian basins, petrophysics and environmental sustainability.

“The strategic alliance between Ecopetrol and the Industrial University of Santander has represented the opportunity to articulate with the regional academic ecosystem and to have the scientific, technological and innovation capacities of the UIS, which is the main university in this region of the country and which has academic and research strengths that have been recognized in different international rankings. We have brought the research groups closer to the problems and technological challenges of Ecopetrol and students have been trained in these groups, some of whom have already joined this Company in different selection processes ”, explains Andrés Mantilla, Director of the Center of Innovation and Technology of Ecopetrol (ICP).

‘Under the same roof’ becomes a new articulation model between industry and academia that successfully adapts to the Colombian context the effective German scheme for the execution of joint research projects between industry and universities. “This agreement with the UIS was the spearhead for several strategic alliances that we have with national universities under this modality of joint research and development (…) and it has allowed us to build a very important scientific and technological ecosystem for the country,” says Mantilla .

Within the framework of the sixth anniversary of this Alliance, a technical conference was held at the Industrial University of Santander on July 29, with the presence of researchers who shared their experiences and results obtained in the framework of ‘Under the same roof’ on topics such as hydrocarbon production, hydrocarbon exploration, refining and petrochemicals, HSE, environmental issues, integrity and lessons learned.