The Quilmes National University (UNQ) was founded in 1989, 17km south of Buenos Aires City. One of its first courses was a degree in biotechnology, and the university had an early attitude of being willing to entertain several uncoordinated entrepreneurial initiatives coming from both students and faculty. This attitude extended to technology transfer and applied research.

Fairly quickly the university started developing patents, offering consultancy services and creating technology-based firms. By 2004, the UNQ had created an official technology transfer program. This program, presently an Innovation and Technology Transfer Office, was intended to strengthen its core of bio-businesses, processes management and technology transfer abilities. Since then, the UNQ has deepened its efforts to increase awareness of technology transfer issues.

The technology transfer office realized that younger researchers, advanced students and fellowship recipients wanted courses on business topics, wanting to drive themselves towards industry and business. The university understood that it needed to respond to changes in governments, business, and civic life, and it committed to facilitating dialogue between the main actors in tech transfer, and to raising awareness about the relation among biotechnology and businesses.

The university began to encourage meetings between the department of science and technology, with the economy and administration department. This resulted, for the first time, in two disciplines of higher education developing a new postgraduate program: The Biotechnology, Industry and Business executive program.

This program has an online course that mainly aims at deploying knowledge skills, reviewing   the state of the art and trends in biotech business, problem-solving actions in the biotech industry, approaches to main management trends, strategic management and core business ethos, and knowledge transfer. The program meant to the gap between industry and university. It is addressed to candidates coming from biotechnology, business, academic and also manufacturing.

This period of change at UNQ has strengthened the support of students and faculty entrepreneurial initiatives, it has created a technology transfer office and a learning program. The gap between industry and university is getting smaller.

Dario Codner