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Final Conference - UniTransfer Executive Training Course



September 10, 2014

Costa Rica, September 10 - 12, 2014; With great success took place the Final Conference of UniTransfer Executive Training Course at Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, ITCR; in San José, from the 10th to the 12th of September 2014; where 20 participants from Nicaragua, México, and Costa Rica presented the results of their projects developed throughout the course.

The official opening ceremony was preceded by several esteemed authorities, inter alia, Lic. David Bullon (Representative from the Science, Technology and Telecommunications Ministry from Costa Rica – MICITT) and M.A. Michael Eschweiler (Director in Costa Rica of the German Academic Exchange Service – DAAD); further particularly noteworthy personalities in the presidium were Prof. Dr. Thomas Baaken (Director of UniTransfer, Germany) Dra. Lydia Raesfeld (Leader of UniTransfer, México) as well as Dr. Milton Villarreal (Leader of UniTransfer, Costa Rica).

In his opening speech, Prof. Baaken, Director of the Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre in Münster, Germany and Director of UniTransfer; highlighted the importance of nurturing cooperation across cultural and national regions in order to establish innovation in the Higher Education Management System. In this line, M.A. Eschweiler from the DAAD, recognized that despite existent national and institutional differences between Germany and Latin America, universities are being challenged by similar global trends; such as placing universities as an active entity in their regions and within their innovation systems. In this respect UniTransfer has successfully proved to improve the participants’ performance as professionals working in knowledge transfer positions within HEIs in Central America and Mexico and to cause a positive direct impact on their institutions.

The Personal Application Projects (PAP) from each participant were presented in one of the track sessions of the 2nd Innovation Conference in Costa Rica. The presentation format was arranged as “Round Tables” where internationally renowned experts coordinated the discussion among participants and provided feedback on their projects for further development.

The Final Conference UniTransfer served as the perfect stage to harvest the fruits of four years of collaboration between Münster University of Applied Sciences and a group of universities in Mexico and Central America, represented by the Universidad Autónoma del Estado Hidalgo, in México and Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, in Costa Rica.