According to a DANE survey, 70.9% of the country’s manufacturing companies do not develop innovation activities, 25.8% develop innovation activities in a broad sense and only 0.2% in a strict sense.

One problem we have identified is that there is a big disconnection between companies and universities, both in their priorities and in the indicators how they are measured in terms of innovation.

Innovative companies cooperate mainly with suppliers (23.4%), customers (17.1%) and consultants (10.8%), but there is a low collaboration with universities (9.8%). It is precisely the universities that concentrate the country’s knowledge and technological development since in 2020, 9 out of 10 of the main patent applicants were universities.

But on the other hand, patents developed and registered in Colombia, mostly by universities, do not coincide with sectors in which we have a competitive advantage, often they cannot be transferred to the market because they do not reach the required level of maturity.

In this order of ideas, the emergence of TTOs, as an actor in many cases external to universities and companies, allows this successful connection between academia and the business sector. But then, what is a TTO and what is its role in this situation?

Research Results Transfer Offices (OTRIs) are public or private organizations, with their own legal status or dependent on another entity, dedicated to promoting the transfer of knowledge and/or technology to productive or social organizations that demand it.

The TTOs are part of the actors recognized by Minciencias in the ecosystem of Science, Technology and Innovation and have a fundamental role in this, for this reason, in the conference given by the commercial head of Reddi at the University of Cauca under hybrid mode, we addressed these issues that raise awareness and give an overview of the impact generated by entities such as Reddi, recognized as TTO, and how we can enhance the results of innovation and development from their work.