1887

Innovative and Entrepreneurial Universities in Latin America

image of Innovative and Entrepreneurial Universities in Latin America

The review examines how higher education institutions are supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in their surrounding communities. The study focuses on eleven universities located in six countries in Latin America: Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

The study finds that selected institutions are actively supporting entrepreneurs (university students, but also local entrepreneurs) through courses, incubation and acceleration activities. It also shows that universities are actively engaging with external stakeholders in their surrounding communities, to spur innovation through joint-research, organisation of events (such as festivals, competition). It finds that that while COVID-19 pandemic brought about some challenges, universities managed to stay afloat and keep a steady stream of support to entrepreneurs and partners. The review also illustrates the challenges that universities face when developing these activities (lack of funding, unclear regulation for intellectual property development, etc.) and highlights some opportunities that universities should leverage, particularly in the current context.

English

Executive Summary

Entrepreneurial Latin American higher education institutions (HEIs) have become important local stakeholders, promoting leadership, innovation and sustainability in their own communities. This evolution, shared by all case study HEIs involved in this report, reflects a broader trend in Latin America. More widely, opportunity-driven entrepreneurship has gained traction in the region over the last decade, changing the innovation landscape by bringing new products and services to markets. Technology-driven start-ups in the region have tripled since 2017 and have multiplied their estimated value from USD 7 billion to USD 221 billion over the last decade, according to the IADB. In 2021, the region had twenty-seven unicorns (privately held start-ups valued at more than USD 1 billion). Entrepreneurship has gained importance within national and subnational policy agendas, with several countries establishing public accelerators, or support programmes to help young start-ups and innovative SMEs scale-up their ventures. In some cases, universities in the region have actively connected to these programmes or established their own initiatives. The aim of the review is to identify good practices of entrepreneurship education and knowledge exchange efforts, which can help HEIs, generate economic and societal value for their ecosystems.

English Also available in: Spanish

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error