Nexos was born in 2010 in the Washington DC area with members from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, who met regularly in scientific seminars. The group also had an active participation in cultural, scientific or official activities developed at the Chilean Consulate and Embassy. This interaction finally materialized in the joint organization of the first meeting of Chilean scientists in the United States, Nexos Chile-USA 2010, in the Embassy’s own facilities. On this occasion, during a meeting day, we had 70 participants from different cities in the United States. The success of this meeting was expressed with the identification of the attendees with this initiative and the creation of the first Nexus Nuclei in different parts of the United States. This has been followed by several annual meetings, including institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Currently, Nexos has a nucleus in Chile with legal personality, which is of special importance as it represents the vision and mission of Nexos in our country and allows efficient coordination of efforts to generate ties between Chile and the United States.

Nexos Chile-USA brings together professionals from different areas of science at different stages of training, from students to researchers with distinguished careers.

Nexos seeks to be the space to generate a constructive and concrete discussion that allows:

• Collaborate in the creation of scientific public policies that contribute to the research and technological development of our country. The evaluation of scholarship conditions, labor reintegration and agreements between Chilean and North American institutions are of special importance.
  Represent Chilean scientists in the United States before the Chilean government and other similar organizations abroad.
  Promote the Image of Chile through science.
  Foster links between Chilean scientists in the United States, the scientific community in Chile, and the Chilean government.

Our mission is to promote the careers of Chilean scientists in the US and Chile. We serve our members by helping them in their job search, establishing scientific collaborations, and promoting their work in both countries.

Our goals are to increase the number of Chilean scientists in academia, industry, and other institutions, promoting science in Chile and the US. As well as generating, supporting and strengthening collaborations between researchers in the US and with their peers in Chile, which translates into our motto: “Creating networks for the scientific future of Chile“.

In addition, we create spaces to talk about public policies in science through our representatives in Redes Chilenas (ReCh).

Nexos Chile-USA uses two main strategies to work on these objectives. The first is communicational, distributing information, news, interviews and job opportunities through social networks, the website and a monthly newsletter. With a database of around 800 Chilean scientists, and a growing number of followers on Facebook and Twitter, it turns out to be a very useful strategy.

The second is our annual meeting, which brings together around 80-100 Chilean scientists each year at some of the leading US universities. In addition to personal interactions, key when it comes to generating networks, and scientific presentations, which allow us to make our work known to the community, during the two days of the meeting, instances of discussion are generated between representatives of scientific-political work in Chile. and the US, the personal and work experience of other Chilean researchers abroad and reinserted in Chile is shared. Representatives from organizations, foundations, government, industry and academia also participate in the meeting. The heterogeneity of the audience makes it possible to generate a transversal, objective and constructive discussion, which is very well criticized each year by the attendees.