School:Universidad Católica del Uruguay
Contents
- 1 Overview
- 2 Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship
- 3 Actively supporting the university technology transfer function
- 4 Facilitating university-industry collaboration
- 5 Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship
- 6 Facilitating university-industry collaboration
- 7 Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts
- 8 Related Links
Overview
The Universidad Católica del Uruguay Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga (UCU), founded in 1985, is the oldest and largest private university in Uruguay. It was the only private university in the country for more than a decade. UCU is run by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and is recognized nationally and internationally for combining academic excellence, social commitment, and innovation.
The main campus is located in Montevideo (Parque Batlle), with additional campuses in Punta del Este and Salto, and outreach centers in other regions. UCU has six academic units: Health Sciences, Business Sciences, Law and Human Sciences, Engineering and Technologies, UCU Business School, and the Graduate School, with over 11,000 students.
The university also operates several specialized centers, such as:
- Íthaka Center (Innovation & Entrepreneurship).
- Ludus Center (Educational Innovation).
- Agora Center (Leadership and Public Life).
- Ignis Center (Research on Digital Culture and Communication).
- University Health Clinics (Primary Care and Community Health).
- Berit Center (Jewish Studies).
UCU’s strategic orientation combines academic rigor, internationalization, sustainability, and innovation, aligning with Jesuit values of service and leadership.
Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship
Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) is one of UCU’s strongest pillars. The Íthaka Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship plays a leading role, providing students with mentoring, incubation, workshops, and competitions that allow them to discover, learn, and experiment with new ideas.
Main initiatives include:
- Hackathon “Suma Innovación a tu Carrera”, awarding scholarships to high school students through innovation challenges.
- LOOP Innovation Week (2018–2019) → evolved into UCU Week, held annually since 2021, where classes are suspended and students access entrepreneurial workshops, design sprints, and innovation bootcamps.
- Innovation Community (since 2020), a student-driven initiative to solve campus challenges.
- Podcast “Onda Emprendedora” and open sessions with local entrepreneurs.
- “Intervalos” Project, live student interviews with CEOs and business leaders.
Between 2023 and 2025, Íthaka launched additional programs:
- Potenciá Gastronomía: training and networking for culinary entrepreneurs.
- Mujeres que Construyen: supporting women in construction and design industries.
- Capacitaciones EDMP: training in entrepreneurial design and management practices.
- Emprendimiento que Quiere Crecer: accelerator program for scaling startups.
In 2025, UCU students joined the University Innovation Fellows (UIF) global network, consolidating UCU’s role in fostering entrepreneurship aligned with Stanford d.school and Twente University frameworks.
Actively supporting the university technology transfer function
UCU supports technology transfer and intellectual property (IP) processes through its collaboration with Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII) and Íthaka. Although UCU does not yet have a fully independent Technology Transfer Office (TTO), Íthaka provides guidance on:
- Patent registration and IP rights.
- Legal mentoring for student and faculty startups.
- Seed fund competitions that include IP advisory services.
In 2024, UCU launched new training modules on IP law, startup financing, and innovation contracts, strengthening its role as a facilitator of technology transfer in Uruguay’s academic ecosystem.
Facilitating university-industry collaboration
UCU actively connects students and faculty with industry partners. Collaboration channels include:
- Íthaka Mentoring Program, linking projects with industry experts.
- Ignis Convoca, encouraging participation in international innovation contests.
- IdeasLab, a pre-incubation program to validate business models.
- Circular Opportunities, an initiative to support sustainable business models.
Employment and career integration:
- Career Fair (Feria Laboral), the largest in the country, where 80+ companies meet UCU students annually.
- UCU Job Portal (since 2023), matching students with internships and jobs.
- Professional practices in Engineering, Communication, Medicine, and Business, often developed with companies as final projects.
Academic–industry innovation:
- Engineering Promotion Fund (ANII) supports senior-year entrepreneurship projects.
- “Challenges” courses in Computer Science (team-based solutions to real problems in 3-week sprints).
- Graduate School Capstone Program, requiring every graduate student to engage in applied professional practice.
These collaborations ensure UCU graduates are prepared for interdisciplinary teamwork and market challenges.
Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship
Faculty are actively encouraged to integrate innovation in both teaching and research. The Ludus Center supports professors in adopting project-based learning, digital transformation, and AI in education, offering training and certification programs.
Professors also act as mentors within Íthaka’s programs, guiding student startups in legal, financial, and technical aspects. Several UCU faculty members are themselves entrepreneurs or serve as consultants for companies, bringing industry expertise into the classroom.
Recent highlights (2023–2025):
- Expansion of faculty mentoring networks in Íthaka programs.
- Faculty-led applied research projects with direct commercialization potential.
- Growth of interdisciplinary teaching teams, e.g., Medicine + Engineering in health-tech projects.
- Launch of faculty innovation workshops in sustainable business and circular economy.
This culture empowers professors to explore entrepreneurial pathways, while also creating role models who inspire students to pursue their own ventures.
Facilitating university-industry collaboration
UCU facilitates the relationship between industry and the university in multiple ways, some of which are described below.
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
There are two main programmes that regulate and connect the entrepreneurship and innovation that takes place in university with real-life organizations, business and markets. The first one is the mentoring program offered by Ithaka. This one supports students, professors, and alumni in developing their ideas in the pursuit of transforming them into entrepreneurs. This program launches a call to help eight companies, where in three months they assign them a mentor who has experience in the area each project needs, the programm counts with 25 academic staff as mentors. In fact, the seed funds competitions have a designated budget for Ithaka’s members. Also, Ithaka offers legal mentoring by a lawyer and professor of the university.
The second one is the “Ignis Convoca” program, which also gives students support but, at the same time, pushes them to participate in contests regional and international.
The university, a few years ago, organized activities to facilitate validation with incubators. An example of this was IdeasLab, a pre-incubation program, where mentoring, tutoring and training were given by mentors who help validate the participant ́s business plan.
Moreover, as UCU believes that social responsibility and engagement is important, it promoted with Ithaka a program called “Circular Opportunities” that provided tutorships and training to entrepreneurs trying to address social and environmental problems. These programs are no longer available in the university, but those mentioned above have increased their impact on the entrepreneurial area of the university.
Job opportunities facilitators
“Feria Laboral” is an annual event. It is mainly a fair whose aim is inserting students into the labour market. This activity consists of a large number of companies from different fields gathered for this day in the university to describe, inform and offer different career opportunities that students can apply for.
There are several internships available as well, for students that want to start working at the university, such opportunities include being part of the centers, the administration or the technical support. In addition, in the last year, a job portal has been developed, where students can upload their curriculum and discover job proposals that suit their skills.
Work-practice opportunities
Universidad Catolica del Uruguay offers infrastructure and resources for making their own professional practices before graduation.
UCU is currently going through a changing process, the whole university is turning into a more insightful and transversal education center aiming for an interdisciplinary and intercareer process of education and formation. Ucu is trying to make professionals adapt to today’s needs by teaching them that knowing a lot of only one thing is not the best way to approach the work market. Today’s needs require a deep but not professional knowledge about a vast amount of topics. UCU is making us try to be profesionales at projects and working in teams of different professions rather than solo workers.
As a way to promote an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit in students, UCU has a wide variety of offers regarding work practices. In most majors, internships are offered in external companies for students who are about to finish their studies. In some departments, students are invited to carry out projects in collaboration with companies and with academic staff, as are the base of audiovisual technicians, the UCU business in company and the original content production line programs.
The engineering department has the engineering promotion fund by the ANII to promote engineering projects and many of the final year students chose to do the entrepreneurship variant of the final project.
The Computer Science career has incorporated a new kind of course, known as "Challenges". This is an opportunity for the students to show their streng
t
h
s and innovative ideas as they work together on a three-week long pro
j
e
ct, in order to find a solution for a real problem that is present in our society.
And last but not least, there is a program offered by the graduate school named Capstone, where professional practices are supported, given that are mandatory for every graduate student.
Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts
Uruguayan government is helping the startup industry flourish by implementing these institutions : National Agency of Research and Innovation (ANII) and National Development Agency (ANDE). Enhancing this, the Co work spaces and the special Centers dedicated to supporting students, postgraduates and graduates with an entrepreneurial spirit are an important base in the progress of the realization of ideas.
Regarding to ANII, this institution makes available to the public funds for research projects, national and international postgraduate scholarships and incentive programs for innovative culture and entrepreneurship, both in the private and public sectors.
In relation to ANDE, their aim is to contribute to productive economic development, in a sustainable way, with social equity and environmental and territorial balance.
Ithaka is the Sponsoring Institution of Entrepreneurship (IPE) in front of the National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII) and the National Development Agency (ANDE).
Thanks to the support of ANII and ANDE, Ithaka´s pre-incubated entrepreneurs will have access to capital to carry out the validation of their idea.
In turn, the Ithaka center has launched two competitions, Tecnolog and Kenn S George to promote and help the different entrepreneurs that apply. These are two workshops where the teams that submit their projects will be trained and the winner will obtain seed capital for their entrepreneurship.
Since last year, IthaKa has joined forces with the Municipio CH, ANDE and the Ministry of Interior, by supporting the project "Andrés Abt Entrepeneurs´ sentry boxes" (Garitas para emprendedores Andrés Abt). The main goal
o
f
this project is to generate new job oportunities by allowing entrepeneurs to install their businesses in the old police sentry boxes that are now in disuse.
The chosen entrepeneurs are expected to adapt the sentry boxes, creating a space to show and sell their products and services, while they also contribute by improving the appearance of the place, adding a service to the c o m
munity.UCU ́s Strategic Plan for the Future
In a diverse and alarming world, we have the challenge of committing ourselves to the creation of sustained value in the relationships and decisions we make daily.
In UCU ́s Strategic Plan, the aim is to be more innovative, creative, inclusive and open to the world.
When students learn, the sky isn't the limit, therefore UCU is constantly reinventing so that the academic experience is enhanced. UCU is achieving that by providing day to day new courses, careers, or even a new institution (as it is UCU Business School).
Every day that passes, UCU tries to be a better university, where all the stakeholders contribute to overall sustainable development.
Related Links
Universidad Católica del Uruguay Student Priorities
Fall 2017 Fellows
Fall 2018 Fellows
Fall 2019 Fellows
Fall 2021 Fellows
Fall 2023 Fellows
Fall 2025 Fellows
Marco Montelatici ----
Related links
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