Innovation and technological transfer in Latin American universities: a proposal from Medellín, Colombia

Abstract

Nowadays, innovation is a concept that plays an important role in all areas of human development. One of them is at the university, which seeks to boost innovation processes from early steps and use students and teachers as main characters to develop ideas through research processes and to consolidate technology transfer processes benefiting society. Nevertheless, these processes are defined considering methods or models according to the context in which they have been successful, as in the case of European and North American universities. However, the same results are not obtained when applying those to Latin American universities. This article describes a proposal from three higher education institutions in Medellin to generate a methodology that makes the technology transfer process effortless and efficiently performed. This approach is based on training in innovation and co-creation as tools to facilitate collaborative work among ecosystem stakeholders. The results of the methodological framework proposed and its construction from co-creation sessions are reported.