22 academic semester of 2021 and stands for the first case of implementation outside of Spain. This initiative has represented a great advance and opportunity for the Peruvian higher education community, since the Chair has promoted a stronger relationship and constant communication with the industry and has already served as inspiration for parallel cooperation activities with other industry representatives. During the last four years, the Epiroc UniversityCompany Chair has delivered specialized conferences and seminars, machinery donations and study trips, for students, teachers and researchers reaching already over a thousand impacted professionals in the mining sector. On the other hand, the Chair has offered Epiroc Peru, along the dissemination of their technology, the opportunity to promote innovation in thematic areas necessary for the development of the mining industry. The opportunities developed around such collaboration go beyond an academic exchange. As an example, Peru is probably the best test bench to analyse and improve the performance of mining equipment at extreme altitude conditions, since this country has world-class mines, both open pit and underground, at altitudes that exceed 4,000 meters above sea level. In summary, the University-Company Chairs contribute to the development of training, dissemination, knowledge transfer, research and innovation activities and arise from the need to maximize the relationship between the university community and its future work environment. This model of collaboration is an excellent instrument to formalize and create long-term collaboration agreements, in one or more domains of knowledge, between higher education institutions and companies or entities with the major goal of fostering knowledge transfer from theory to the praxis, bridging the gap between the academic offer and the skills demanded withing the company's workforce. 4. THE HUB AND SPOKES APPROACH Building on the success of the initial model, Epiroc expanded the collaboration to Peru, conducting activities over three years. Later, as the network grew, the Ibero-American Hub and Spokes Approach was established to developed collaboration, covering four countries, Spain, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. One of the major activities was the online lectures of the EpirocUniversity Chair in 2023, involving 24 Peruvian universities, 7 educational institutions, and 10 global mining companies. The network positively impacted 993 students across 7 LatinAmerican countries.
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