The foremost commitment of the Università della Calabria is to act as a link between students and employers. The gap between academic society and the world of work is at the core of the two specific action strategies enacted by UNICAL. The goal of both is to enhance and exploit at best the university’s fields of excellence and individual talents, in the long or short term.

- Research is managed with a fresh approach to science and technology development opportunities. Projects are oriented towards the improvement of life conditions and sustainability;
- Higher education is intended as a chance to grant to the next generation the awareness and the tools to face present and future challenges.
The university has established a wide network of research and training organizations, acting as a practical and effective connection between academic and business stakeholders.

UNICAL’s knowledge transfer policies generate highly positive dynamics for the development of technology, to the benefit of R&D and applied research.

The Università della Calabria features a special Liaison Office (LiO) for the management of technology and knowledge transfer. The Office was established in February 2003 with the purpose of linking the university’s scientific research structures to the surrounding society, territory, and business.

The LiO provides support services for enterprises interested in innovation, R&D spin-offs, and micro-enterprises; on the other hand, it carries out an intense work of assistance for patent and licensing regulations, planning, information, promotion, monitoring and finance management. The LiO acts as a partner and a reference point for both those internal research group or those external small and medium business in Calabria, which look to extend their network on a larger scale.

More specifically, LiO’s action consists of:

- Support to regional, national and European planning for technology innovation, research and training;

- Information and promotion of technology and knowledge transfer, academic-business cooperation and funding opportunities. LiO website (www.lio.unical.it)  features updated information about the latest opportunities for research and enterprises;

- Assistance for patent management, intellectual property, copyright and bureaucratic issues concerning innovation and research, in order to support at best the work of resident researchers.

-Support to teachers, researchers and post-graduate students for the establishment of dynamic business models such as start-ups and spin-offs;

- Knowledge marketing, aimed at the establishment of R&D business/academic cooperation;

- Networking and partnership implementation, relation-making with local public and private organizations and enterprises;

- Partaking in national and European networks and cooperation plans for technology and knowledge transfer, such as Italian NetVal, and PROTON (European Knowledge Transfer Association). The LiO hosts the APRE (Italian Association for Participation to R&D plans) office for Calabria.

Besides traditional technology transfer tools such as lecturing and scientific publishing, the Università della Calabria is committed to exploit patent and copyright opportunities, research and business/academic cooperation, spin-off joint ventures, applied research agreements and more widely, all available option to integrate the university to its surrounding territory and then to national and international networks.

The mission of LiO is to develop a consistent, practical approach to research policies, by demanding factual results and granting support through innovation policies and funding, in order to extend technology transfer dynamics and encourage the cooperation of enterprises.

Among past achievements, the Università della Calabria has started up 21 spin-off enterprises linked to internal research projects, which resulted in 26 national and 9 international patents, of which 2 have already been licensed to third parties for development.

LiO is a powerful tool for the Università della Calabria, thanks to its effectiveness in the enhancement of research potential, technology transfer, and in marketing applied research. Nevertheless, LiO is keen to establish and extend its presence in the surrounding territory and in the development of public/private cooperation plans. The symbol and the living evidence of this effort is the Parco Scientifico e Tecnologico della Calabria – the Calpark (Calabria Science Park), a joint project of the Università della Calabria and the universities of Reggio Calabria and Catanzaro.

Established in 1992, Calpark consortium is a certified company (UNI EN ISO 9001:2000) with 50 members, among which universities, state organizations, research centres, enterprises and local business. Calpark operates mainly in technology transfer for IT and agro-foodstuffs industry.