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Science does not begin at the university or in a state-of-the-art laboratory. It starts much earlier, when a child asks questions like why the sky is blue or when a teenager dreams of building a robot. It is in that early curiosity where scientific vocations are born and where the capabilities are sown that, years later, drive innovation and the development of a country. In Peru, with the idea of taking advantage of that early curiosity that is innate to youth, the Science and Technology Clubs began to take shape several years ago, an initiative of the National Council of Science, Technology and Innovation (Concytec) that has managed to consolidate one of the largest school scientific promotion networks in the country. Today it brings together more than 111 thousand students in more than 11 thousand clubs distributed nationwide and, after a decade of institutional consolidation, it is beginning to cross borders.
Science does not begin at the university or in a state-of-the-art laboratory. It starts much earlier, when a child asks questions like why the sky is blue or when a teenager dreams of building a robot. It is in that early curiosity where scientific vocations are born and where the capabilities are sown that, years later, drive innovation and the development of a country. In Peru, with the idea of taking advantage of that early curiosity that is innate to youth, the Science and Technology Clubs began to take shape several years ago, an initiative of the National Council of Science, Technology and Innovation (Concytec) that has managed to consolidate one of the largest school scientific promotion networks in the country. Today it brings together more than 111 thousand students in more than 11 thousand clubs distributed nationwide and, after a decade of institutional consolidation, it is beginning to cross borders.
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The Peruvian model has been implemented in Colombia through a South-South Cooperation program and will soon also arrive in Panama. This is a rare event: a Peruvian public science and technology program taken as a reference in other Latin American countries. For the president of Concytec, Sixto Sánchez Calderonthis step represents recognition of the work carried out in recent years.
“This shows that the country not only assimilates good practices from abroad, but also generates social value, solid regulatory frameworks and replicable methodologies of high educational quality,” he says. The official also considers that this process constitutes a “milestone in our foreign policy of Science, Technology and Innovation” and gives Peru a prominent place in public policies for scientific popularization in the region.
Although today the Science and Technology Clubs are part of an established national policy, their history began much earlier. The strategy dates back to pilot initiatives developed during the 1990s and had an important methodological relaunch between 2006 and 2014. Its definitive consolidation came in 2016 with the approval of the Special Program for the Popularization of Science, Technology and Innovation. Added to this, in 2024, was the creation of the Functional Unit for the Popularization of Science, Technology and Technological Innovation, which provided a permanent institutional structure to promote the program.
The clubs function as organized spaces where boys, girls and adolescents share a common interest in science and technology. Its methodology is based on learning through projects and the rigorous application of the scientific method from an early age. The proposal seeks for students not only to learn content, but also to develop skills to investigate, experiment and solve real problems. To do this, they have access to scientific projects linked to strategic areas for the future, ranging from robotics to agrobiodiversity. The results show the dimension that the initiative has reached.
According to official figures from March 2026, there are 11,125 active Science and Technology Clubs throughout the country. The network brings together 111,685 students and works thanks to the work of 12,153 trained advisory teachers. Since its creation, approximately 120 thousand children and adolescents have participated in these scientific training spaces.
Beyond the numbers, the program also seeks to guarantee that access to science is on equal terms.
In initial education, 50.13% of the participants are women. In primary school they represent 49.48%, while in secondary school they reach 51.79%, becoming the majority within the clubs. Equity is also reflected among those who accompany the educational process: 48.5% of the teaching advisors are women.
“These clubs function as a democratic environment free of discrimination,” says Sánchez, who also highlights the strategic future role of this initiative. “The clubs act as the true base of scientific human capital and the main seedbed of talent in the country,” he adds.
The first international experience of the Peruvian model takes place in Cundinamarca, a department located in the center of Colombia that surrounds Bogotá and brings together enormous geographical, environmental, productive and cultural diversity. Precisely this diversity led the regional government to look for successful experiences that would bring science closer to both urban and rural students.
The Colombian region was already promoting a strategy to strengthen research seedbeds, an initiative with important similarities with respect to the Peruvian clubs. During that search they found the model developed by Concytec within the international cooperation catalog of the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI).
“The Science and Technology Clubs model promoted by Concytec especially caught our attention for being part of the international cooperation catalog of the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI) and for the results it has demonstrated in the promotion of early scientific vocations, the development of skills for research and the training of young people capable of innovating and providing solutions to the challenges of their communities,” explains Dr. Arturo Melo Román, secretary of Science, technology and innovation of the Government of Cundinamarca.
For the Colombian authorities, the interest lies not only in reproducing a methodology, but in taking advantage of an experience that has demonstrated results to strengthen their own educational system. “The Peruvian experience fully coincided with the objectives that we have been promoting in the department to strengthen the scientific, technological and innovation capabilities of our student population (…) We seek to learn from a methodology that has demonstrated positive results, identify its most successful elements and adapt them to the needs, characteristics and realities of Cundinamarca. Each territory has particular challenges and, therefore, any model must adjust to its social, educational, cultural and territorial dynamics,” says Melo Román.
The implementation plans to directly benefit about 600 people, including students, teachers, research seed leaders and other educational actors. However, it is part of a broader strategy that hopes to reach approximately nine thousand children, young people and adolescents. As part of the project, Cundinamarca aims to consolidate a territorial network of fifteen research hotbeds, equivalent to the Peruvian Science and Technology Clubs, capable of remaining active and continuing to promote school research once the technical cooperation is concluded.
The transfer of the Peruvian model does not end in Colombia.
Since January 2026, Concytec has also provided specialized technical assistance to the Higher Technical Institute of Agrotechnology of the Americas (ITSAA–INA) of Panama to design and implement a Science and Technology Clubs program specifically aimed at agrotechnological innovation.
The pilot project seeks to strengthen research in technological education linked to the Panamanian agricultural sector through a co-design, validation and implementation process adapted to that context. As part of the schedule approved by the APCI, in August a Panamanian technical team will arrive in Peru to learn first-hand about the functioning of the clubs, participate in specialized workshops organized by Concytec and attend the International Meeting of Science and Technology Clubs.
This same meeting will also bring together representatives of the Secretariat of Science and Innovation of Cundinamarca, becoming the first space where both countries will share experiences in adapting the Peruvian model. The goal is to move towards a common roadmap that allows the experience developed in Peru to serve as a basis for a multinational policy aimed at democratizing school science in Latin America.
“Latin America faces common challenges in terms of education, innovation, competitiveness and social development, so sharing successful experiences between countries in the region constitutes an efficient strategy to accelerate transformation processes and strengthen local capacities,” says Dr. Melo.
The internationalization of Science and Technology Clubs represents something more than the recognition of a Peruvian public policy. It also reflects a different way of understanding regional cooperation: not only as a mechanism to receive knowledge, but also to share successful experiences built from our realities..
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