José Luis Solleiro

Linking university and industry: An organizational experience in Mexico

Abstract This paper describes the experience gained in the Center for Technological Innovation since its creation three years ago within the National Autonomous University of Mexico. By offering the services of locating clients, drafting and negotiating contracts, providing specialized information services, and project follow-up, the Center pursues the establishment of effective ties between University projects and industrial production. In so doing, its staff informally assumes the critical “dgate-keeper” and “entrepreneur” roles, not easily accepted in other areas of the University. The main difficulties encountered so far have been in developing interdisciplinary projects, providing due academic recognition for technological activities and extending knowledge about innovation throughout the University. On the other hand, a great advantage is the interest shown by the academic community; likewise is UNAMs stability and autonomy, structural characteristics which have stimulated the development of technically sound teams over several decades. To date, the Center has provided support services for 125 projects and has participated in establishing 44 contracts between the University and industry.

Knowledge management and value creation in public research centers: The development of a diagnosis tool

The R&D Centers (RDC) are organizations where knowledge and innovation management has a high priority for increasing efficiency of knowledge and creativity processes and their transformation in intellectual assets. At present, these capacities are essential for competitiveness environment where customers demand new and better products and services. In LATAM countries, the public policies stimulate researchers according to a traditional schema mainly based on number of publications and graduated students. So, knowledge management and value creation are not common RDC evaluation. According to this premise, our R&D team has developed an evaluation tool that has been applied to fourteen Mexican RDC, ten Brazilians and ten Chileans. The RDC selected have an acceptable relationship with productive sector and important contributions to science and technology in the region. The objective of the research was the evaluation of knowledge and value creation management (KVCM) in public RDC and the identification of social and economic impact of these elements. Our findings present best practices of KVCM around the results of nine strategic areas. This project is sponsored by IDRC and FLACSO Mexico.

Managing technology in Mexico: A tool for university–-industry linkage

This article describes the key role that adequate management of technology (MOT) can play in linking university with industry. It does so by describing the experience of the Center for Technological Innovation of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, including its organization, results and a description of the profile and functions of the technology manager. Finally, it describes the evolution of MOT activities from case by case project management to organizational innovations whose purpose is to create new institutions on the boundary of university and industry.

Políticas para el Desarrollo de Sistemas de Innovación en México

In 2011, the Mexico-State Council of Science and Technology in alliance with the Inter-American Development Bank and the National Council of Science and Technology implemented a program to promote collaborative networks among firms for improving competitiveness trough innovations. Target firms belong to priority manufacturing and services sectors. This paper deals with the analysis of the program, State of Mexico’s innovation capacities are described, the institutional framework and the main actors are also analyzed. The results show that SMEs had lack of experience in innovation but they increased their investment in innovation projects. Based on that analysis we conclude that success of innovation policies is highly dependent on previous experience and learning abilities of firms. Finally, we draw some recommendations for building capacities at the firm level as well as for strengthening innovation policies aimed at involving and technically upgrading SMEs

A Comparative Analysis of Innovation Policy in Mexico, Spain, Chile and Korea

In the last decades, innovation has become a very significant strategy for the competitiveness. Some governments have implemented public policies oriented to science, technology and innovation to stimulate the technical development in industrial sectors and strengthen their national innovation systems. The main objective of analyzing the economic and industrial performance of Mexico, Spain, Chile and Korea in the cycle of 1980s middle to 2002 year is to find the best practices issued from the innovation policy and the relevant practices that split success or failure in economic and science and technology indicators. The comparative analysis between these countries is based on the technological and innovation strategies, tools and competencies identification. Our study has shown that Korea developed planned industrial consortiums in strategic sectors. Spain under the European Union policies definition has consolidated collaboration networks that involve industry, research centers and universities. The efforts of Chile are based in a conservative but effective innovation policy through the technology acquisition strategy. Perhaps the main difference is the resources availability and the promotion of an innovation culture. This paper presents the main results of this analysis as well as recommendations for the Mexican innovation policy makers. We strongly believe that timely and appropriate response will depend on the adoption of the recommendations provided.

Latin American biosafety regulatory framework

Biotechnology is viewed as a second biological revolution at the turn of the century leading to research applications in various spheres of human activity ranging from farming and health to environmental protection to mining. All these have economic implications. Developing countries, such as the Latin American countries, have problems translating research results into applications leading to products, processes and services. The weak and inherently regulatory policies of these countries mostly promote scientific rather than industrial developments. This paper attempts to give an overview of the biosafety regulations within the framework of biotechnology policies for some Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The inadequacies of these policies are pointed out and suggestions for future developments in this area are given.

Environmental Biotechnologies in Mexico

The emerging biotechnology revolution is giving rise to the hope that it can provide the basis for more sustainable development, and the field of environmental management is no exception. It is widely recognized that environmental biotechnology will play a major role in efforts aimed at preventing further damage to the environment and combating environmentally related diseases, mainly by generating food at a lower environmental cost, by providing less toxic chemicals or less polluting processes for chemical manufacture, by eliminating toxic chemicals from the environment, and by controlling infectious disease in overcrowded populations (Timmis, 1992).