University Society Interface: A Case Study from Portugal and Spain

The university today holds the function of transmitting, discovering and distributing knowledge to society, by responding to the needs of companies and adopting mechanisms that facilitate the transfer of knowledge. Therefore, one of the larger objectives of the university is to make knowledge a differentiating element within the society and the economy since this motivates competition, creates wealth and employment and improves the work conditions in companies and countries. In fact, for some years researchers have been concerned with the problematic of interface between university-society, namely with respect to university-company cooperation. The principal question of this study was to identify, characterize and propose technology and knowledge transfer mechanisms for Portugal, namely the border regions of this country, which could contribute to strengthening local competence, creation of wealth and new company activities. The characterization of these technology transfer mechanisms was carried out according to a Spanish model, called Oficinas de Transferencia de Resultados de Investigacao (OTRI), from the University of Santiago de Compostela and the University of Salamanca.