16. The Locus for Open Innovation Arrangements: How Universities Can Engage Firms to Collaborate

The emergence of open innovation practices has caused the university’s role to be rethought, especially in the form of its engagement with industry and society. More and more entrepreneurial behavior is expected from the university. However, in some locations, such as Brazil, where universities have developed based on technology import models, collaboration with industry, and therefore technology transfer, is still challenging. Thus, in this chapter, we present the case of Unisinos, which created a hub, a locus for open innovation, enhancing companies’ engagement in the technology transfer process. This hub has a specific physical structure to enhance companies’ engagement with the university. Besides, it uses a set of expert-brokered interface processes capable of ensuring quality, improving project management, and making the best choice of partners for the company project. This approach has offered entrepreneurial behavior for research and broadens the insertion of the university in its surroundings.