Chile : Fostering Technology Transfer and Commercialization

Chile is an economy rich in natural resources and their efficient exploitation has proved the right strategy to grow successfully over the last few decades. More recently, in the broader context of increasing globalization and competitive pressures, it has chosen as its main development driver the contribution that arises from innovation and the adoption of higher levels of technology to enhance productivity growth and to add to national competitiveness. Following extensive technical analysis this effort has focused on priority clusters of economic activity that offer increasing opportunities for Chile’s exports in competitive global markets.

In this context, the President of Chile established the National Innovation Council for Competitiveness (Consejo Nacional de Innovación para la Competitividad, CNIC) to provide the vision and lead the thinking on these issues. The CNIC has charted a broad strategy that proposes new directions in the national research and development effort, to improve the relevance and quality of the supply of innovative ideas. Concurrently, efforts are being made in the industry system to encourage the private sector to increase its investment in research and development, which has historically been low, to generate a strong practice of innovation on the demand side and so improve productivity and competitiveness. In line with modern theories on innovation systems, the strategy is also concerned with the stimulation and enhancement of the intermediaries who are working to link the research system and the industrial system and to facilitate information flows in both directions. This for short hand has been referred to as technology transfer and commercialization or technology brokering and constitutes the focus of this report.

The report responds to a request by the CNIC, through its Technical Secretariat, to review Chile’s technology transfer and commercialization system and identify practical steps to accelerate the development of an effective and dynamic system. The findings and conclusions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the view of the CNIC members or its Secretariat. A summary of the main findings and conclusions follows.