In the last three years, the UC Riverside Office of Technology Partnerships has worked with the Organization of American States, or OAS, to foster innovation, technology commercialization, and entrepreneurship throughout the Americas as part of the OAS’ “Commercialization and Tech Transfer HUB” for the Americas.

A memorandum of understanding will solidify these existing partnerships and extend efforts to reach even more countries and regions.

“We are delighted to partner with UC Riverside to help advance the level of innovation in our member states,” said Cesar Parga, chief for the Competitiveness, Innovation and Technology Section of the OAS’ Department of Economic Development. “UC Riverside brings valuable culturally adapted expertise to the region.” 

UC Riverside has successfully worked in Chile and other Latin American countries for the past two years in the areas of technology transfer and entrepreneurship training in partnership with governments and educational institutions focused on economic development through innovation.  

“We have built a valuable set of skills, expertise and mentor team at UC Riverside that can help accelerate innovation in Latin America,” said Rosibel Ochoa, associate vice chancellor for technology partnerships at UC Riverside. “The partnership with the OAS allows us to reach more countries and better support the local efforts” 

One of the initial efforts to emerge from the recent memo of understanding between UC Riverside and the OAS is the collaboration on the development of an online platform to provide technology transfer and entrepreneurship training, mentorship, and networking to the region.

The online platform, still under development, will offer customized support and training to accelerate tech commercialization. Most technology transfer offices in the Americas are fairly new and have small teams. Innovators in those countries struggle to commercialize their technologies. 

Experts at UC Riverside will use the platform to share best practices and help research institutions among OAS member states build capacity for successful technology transfer.

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