About the Network

The UnInPública Network, which name is an acronym to Universities for Public Innovation, arises with the objective of identifying, connecting, analyzing and disseminating university initiatives for the transfer of knowledge to the public sector through innovation and participation approaches that allow to influence an improvement of the public politics. In this way, it is intended to respond to the social demand for transformation through knowledge. This will help to redefine the way in which universities and scientific centers relate to their environment and territories, allowing the generation of systemic approaches that facilitate social change.

Universities are centers for the production and dissemination of knowledge that are in an unbeatable position to become dynamizers and promoters of social innovation in their respective territories of influence, in order to be able to develop innovative public policies in collaboration with other social agents. such as the public sector, companies and citizens. In fact, in a broad sense, universities, many of them geographically integrated in the cities themselves, could be considered as laboratories of experimentation in the city and in their own regions of influence. Through these laboratories of experimentation, universities can reinforce their mission of transferring knowledge and generating social impact, while becoming more open and inclusive institutions in order to be more permeable to the most significant social problems of the world. its environment. Universities alone are capable of mobilizing large communities, not only of research personnel but also of students who, at the same time, are part of the young citizenry committed to their closest realities and to the great global challenges. Working from the idea of community and under methodologies of co-creation and open innovation, the model of social innovation laboratories in universities can be a key engine for social and economic development in Latin America and Europe, as well as a way to achieve an impact most significant of these institutions in their environment.

This Network is also created with a strong projection towards the Ibero-American sphere, with a common culture and language, which does not prevent that it is also open to other latitudes with which to connect, innovate and learn.
The starting point of this Network will be the collaborative construction of a Manifesto for public innovation from the universities that articulates a call to action for the joint work of universities and public institutions towards the promotion of public innovation.

One of the main objectives of the UnInPública Network is to know, analyze, reflect and co-create ways in which universities can contribute to innovation and public policies for the challenges posed by this global crisis, working around these three axes :

  1. Collaboratively map and analyze laboratories and other innovation and social transformation initiatives in the Ibero-American context.
  2. Capture these findings in this digital portal that will serve as a tool for the visualization and geolocation of these initiatives in order to facilitate contact and exchange.
  3. Communicate and activate face-to-face spaces for the exchange of experiences and models of social innovation from the university level in Latin America. The holding of different periodic meetings will serve to strengthen this network of institutions and organizations interested in developing public innovation through universities as a tool for social change.

This network will also form part of an Action Plan for the promotion of public innovation from the universities that will be completed with a virtual meeting on May 21 and 22, 2020 in order to know, reflect and propose ways in which the universities They can contribute to public innovation for the challenges posed by this global crisis. This meeting will serve as the first meeting point for institutions and organizations interested in developing public innovation through Universities as a tool for social change.