Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol1-1 > From the land of Picasso

The University of Málaga (UMA) is a public institution, which promotes outstanding research and teaching within the European Higher Education Area. The institution follows an educational model to promote competitive, quality teaching, which is employment-orientated and accredited in Europe. Its vigour and growth over recent years have led it to become a reference point for universities in Spain. With a university community of just over 40,000 people, over the last decade UMA has sought to promote the internationalisation of both teaching and research as well as the mobility of its teachers and students. UMA also offers an extensive catalogue of specialised teaching and postgraduate studies: PhDs, official Master’s Degrees, internal studies, specialisation courses, Spanish language for foreigners, summer courses and all kinds of scientific and cultural activities for better and more complete university training.

With little more than 25 years of existence, Málaga University has become a significant promoter of culture in the city, whilst at the same time providing a considerable basis for technology and research in the future. Málaga University is one of the points of the so-called “productive triangle” of the city, which also comprises the airport and Andalusia’s Science and Technology Park. The Technology Park is bound to the university through the highly qualified professionals, the constant flow of ideas, and advanced technologies.

It is clearly understood that in this day and age the university is not an institute completely isolated from its surrounding environment; rather, it could be thought to be a model in which it is just one of the driving forces within the socio-economic change. It is within this model that the so-called “third mission” of the university appears. In other words, apart from the two other missions already consolidated, that being education and research, the transfer of knowledge is also considered social work, by way of incorporating new knowledge into the production environment to produce innovation. In this regard, the University of Málaga has become fully aware of this challenge, so much so that its Strategic Plan is to “Investigate for progress and Innovate to change society”. This indicates the importance of this university in the generation of knowledge for economic and social progress.

As effective elements of this transfer we find the Bureau of Transfer of the Research’s Results (OTRI) whose main objective is based on transferring scientific-technical offers from the university to the productive sectors. To this end, there are two classical stages: (i) to identify the results of research generated, and (ii) to distribute and facilitate its transfer to promote innovation.

In 1996 the university improved this transference model. To strengthen the interaction between academia and companies the University Institutes Building was located in the Andalusia Technology Park, designed to house research groups of excellence and enterprises that work closely; resembling a business incubator dedicated to university spin-offs. Also, the OTRI was incorporated in this complex to facilitate the interaction of all these elements between themselves. This fact duplicated the number of contracts and joint ventures with companies. Since 1996 the contracted amount has been growing towards the current n12,000,000 which places this Spanish university amongst the first 15 universities in Spain regarding transference activity.

Patents, an important tool for innovation, have been enhanced by an institutional plan to promote new patents and their internationalisation. The number of patents increased from four in the previous year, to 37 last year, which places the university amongst some of the top 10 Spanish universities. This plan sought to promote a portfolio of patents with quality assurance, in order to offer them to the business community. To that end, a specialised unit was set up dedicated to industrial property with an award being granted to the best university patents. From 1997 exists a competition for business ideas to create university spin-offs. Eleven companies are established per year and they are supported until they are able to access seed capital, with a high degree of success.

Oficina de Transferencia de Resultados
de Investigación
Universidad de Málaga
Parque Tecnológico de Andalucía
c/Severo Ochoa, 4
29590, Campanillas (Málaga)
Tel: (+34) 952 13 2591
Fax: (+34) 952 13 1021
E-mail: dirotri@uma.es
Website: www.uma.es