UC and King's College London Renew Joint Doctoral Agreement

The agreement, valid through 2029/30, allows doctoral students to obtain degrees from both universities, having benefited four researchers affiliated with iHEALTH to date.

The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) and King's College London (KCL) have renewed for five additional years the agreement linking KCL's Doctoral Programme in Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences with UC's Doctoral Programme in Biological and Medical Engineering in Chile.

The agreement, led at the Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering (IIBM) by its director and iHEALTH researcher René Botnar, allows students to spend at least one year — and up to two — at the partner institution, earning a degree from both universities. The last cohort covered by this new agreement will enroll in the 2029/30 academic year.

Both institutions offer world-class infrastructure: KCL has 10 clinical research MRI scanners and UC has 3, including a 0.55T scanner available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — a distinction unique worldwide. In addition, both universities maintain agreements with Siemens Healthineers and share the use of the open-source Pulseq framework, facilitating continuity of research projects across both countries.

A Growing Success Story

Since its signing in 2020 — in the midst of the pandemic — the programme has welcomed at least one new student each year. To date, four UC students have completed or are currently pursuing the joint doctorate, with a fifth in the process of joining in 2027.

The first to complete this journey was Carlos Castillo, now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford. He was followed by Varina Aldana, who works in molecular imaging and is currently completing her doctorate under the supervision of Flavia Zacconi and René Botnar. Nicolás Garrido is currently undertaking his stay in London.

For Nicolás, the experience has been transformative: he arrived at iHEALTH as a research engineer, and the environment led him to redirect his career toward academia. From London, he particularly values "working with specialists from other countries who are doing really interesting things," and recommends that anyone considering applying speak with those who have already participated, "to understand how it works and what it involves."

For his part, René Botnar, director of the IIBM, highlights that the renewal of the agreement represents recognition of the quality of research being conducted in Chile. For this second period, the goal is to expand collaboration beyond the field of medical imaging: "We want to involve many more bioengineers working in computational modeling, digital twins, AI, and other areas. I think there is a lot of potential."

Those seeking more information can visit the IIBM website or contact René Botnar directly.