Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) occupy a distinctive position within innovation ecosystems, connecting scientific and technological capabilities with industry, public policy, and territorial development. Yet their potential to act as ecosystem orchestrators and contributors to Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy remains unevenly developed. This session will present a collaborative initiative led within WAITRO LAC to explore how RTOs can strengthen their institutional practices, strategic capacities, and policy interfaces to play a more active role in dynamizing innovation ecosystems. Drawing on WAITRO’s benchmarking experience and complementary perspectives on institutional capabilities, policy implementation, and ecosystem governance, the initiative brings together a practice-oriented approach to identifying, characterising, and learning from the ways RTOs engage with their wider innovation systems.

The session will offer the WAITRO community a space to reflect on the evolving role of RTO – from providers of knowledge and technology towards strategic actors capable of connecting capabilities, actors, and policy agendas for sustainable development. By bringing an LAC perspective into the global WAITRO dialogue, it will explore pathways for translating institutional experience into stronger ecosystem engagement, policy influence, and opportunities for international collaboration. This conversation is particularly relevant to the Summit’s ambition to move from ideas to impact, as it addresses a fundamental enabling condition for implementation: the capacity of organizations and innovation ecosystems to connect knowledge, partnerships, and policy action.

Speakers