UY Promoting Innovation to Enhance Competitiveness

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The project development objective is to strengthen Uruguay's capacity to generate, transfer and adapt knowledge and technology by supporting: (i) the institutional framework for science, technology, and innovation (STI); (ii) investments in human capital and high-quality research teams; (iii) technology transfer and private sector innovation; and (iv) cross-sectoral and international research collaboration and mobility of researchers between public institutions and the productive sector. There are 3 components. Component one is to support STI policies and institutional strengthening .and will help establish a coherent policy framework for science, technology, and innovation (STI); consolidate and improve existing policies and programs; develop a strong monitoring and evaluation capacity; and raise awareness of STI among stakeholders. It will achieve the above through three subcomponents: (i) support the development of public STI policies; (ii) support the National Research and Innovation Agency; and (iii) set up and support the STI Observatory. Component two is to build human capital and high-quality research teams and will strengthen the capacity to develop new knowledge by: (i) promoting excellence in science and technology research in priority areas; (ii) increasing the stock of advanced human capital and ensuring the early integration of young researchers in research networks and the private sector; and (iii) strengthening priority technical tertiary education programs. Component three will promote innovation and technology transfer to the productive sector and will: (i) seek to introduce new instruments to promote technology transfer and accelerate the adaptation of new technologies and innovations by firms in key clusters; and (ii) promote high impact innovations by fostering new collaborations between the productive sector and knowledge institutions such as universities and research centers.