Argentine Science Minister Daniel Filmus announced the public tender for seven research institutes located in different provinces and financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The construction of the seven buildings will cost 3.605 billion pesos (US$23.9 million at the official exchange rate).
It will be located in the provinces of Buenos Aires (east), Corrientes (northeast), Córdoba (center), Mendoza (center-west), Misiones (northeast), San Luis (west), and Santa Fe (center-east).
“This work was scheduled for 2014; if time is lost in science, you can’t pick up where you left off,” Filmus said, calling for a sustainable public policy.
The buildings, with an area of 14,500 square meters, financed by the IDB under the Federal Innovation Program, will depend on the national universities and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet), the main institution for the promotion of science and technology in the country.
The work will take between 12 and 18 months to complete.
Projects include the construction of an applied physics institute in San Luis, a materials research facility in Misiones, a botany institute in Corrientes, a drylands research center in Mendoza, and a pharmaceutical technology development unit in Cordoba.
In addition, an industrial lactology institute for the production of dairy products will be established in Santa Fe and a veterinary research center in Tandil, Buenos Aires.