**1. Introduction**

Innovation and technology transfer are a fundamental part of society sustainable growth. In terms of Research and Development (R&D) investment, Chile is still far from OECD countries, being only 0.36% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), against an average of 2.4% GDP. Currently, universities are the largest precursor of innovation and technology transferring, capturing 45% of the total investment in research, equivalent to USD 452 million at 2017. Despite this, only 49% of this investment is dedicated to applied R&D activities, with a focus on technology transfer [1].

Between 2015 and 2018, 11 news Transfer and Licensing Offices (TLOs or university technology transfer offices or TTOs) were founded into the universities, which move from 18 to a total of 29. However, the magnitude of this increase on the TLOs was not observed on the transfer indicators, which present a slight increasing (**Figure 1**). This issue could be reelevated to the lack of capabilities on technology transfer and

#### **Figure 1.**

*Technology transfer indicators between 2015-2018.*

commercialization inside the TLOs. It is still insufficient open new OTLs, without an additional support on technology transfer and commercialization [2].

In 2009, the World Bank published "Promoting Technology Transfer and Commercialization: Chile" [3] report, pointing out the need to update the national regulatory framework for technology transfer, since it does not achieve international standards. The following needs of the Chilean ecosystem stand out from this report:


In response to these points, various public policies were generated between 2011 and 2015 to develop trained human capital, and to promote technology commercialization or "go to market", in addition to the creation of institutions devoted to facilitate technology transfer processes, and TLOs in universities and research centers.

Towards the end of 2015, a new public policy was designed, the "Technology Transfer Hubs" (three in total). Under this instrument, seven public universities and three research centers created Know Hub Chile in January 2018. Its main

#### *Science-Based Technological Transfer as a Key Tool in Public Health DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98704*

objective is collaborating to transform scientific research results of its partners in products, services and start-ups companies for the society benefit. For reaching this objective, Know Hub developed a series of programs to accomplish specific challenges of the Chilean (and Latinoamerican) innovation ecosystem. For instance, Know Hub Bridge program was created at the end of 2019 to close gaps in the development of technologies generated with public funding, and to improve their chances of reaching the market [4].

In parallel, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chilean system of health tried to be prepared to the emergency that already had begun in Europe. Thus, a series of measurements were initiated, such as the purchase of mechanical ventilators, medical supplies for personal protection, reagents for PCR sample analysis, among others. Given the high world demand, there was a shortage of some of these items. In addition, there was a growing need for more effective technological solutions to mitigate the virus spreading, which led to local technological capabilities to meet the needs of health institutions [5].

In this context, from the innovation ecosystem, innovation challenges focused on validating technologies that would help to fight against coronavirus, such as the "Covid-19 Challenge" (TransferenciAP) [6], "SiEmpre initiative" carried out by SOFOFA hub [7] and the "Innovation Challenges for diagnostic kits and personal protection elements", promoted by the Chilean Economic Development Agency (Corfo) and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation (MinCTCi) [8, 9].

In parallel, Know Hub Chile launched its pilot program Know Hub Bridge, to accelerate the validation of technologies that helped Chilean public hospitals to combat Covid-19. The initiative was called OpenBridge Covid-19 and was carried out together with Open Beauchef (University of Chile) and Santander X [10].

In this chapter we will discuss how the Technology Transfer Hubs policy, and specifically how Know Hub Chile established itself in the innovation ecosystem, and how the implementation of the pilot program Know Hub Bridge, under the name of OpenBridge Covid-19, has allowed to closing gaps in Science and Technology Based Companies (STBCs) by transferring their technologies to public hospitals during pandemic times.
