iNNpulsa Colombia Sponsors Trade Mission for U.S. Universities

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA--(Marketwire - Feb 28, 2013) -  iNNpulsa Colombia, the Colombian government agency supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, today announced that the country's leading universities and research institutions will meet with major universities from the United States in a special trade mission, beginning on February 28.

iNNpulsa invited technology transfer experts from Colorado State University, the University of Arkansas, University of Central Florida, University of Connecticut, University of Missouri and the University of South Florida, to partner with Colombian research institutions to promote technology transfer to startup and more established companies.

The two-day program, supported by government funds earmarked for technology transfer skills development in Colombia, will involve 20 major Colombian universities and medical, energy, biotechnology and IT research organizations. It will include presentations by institutions from both countries and planning meetings between Colombian and U.S. participants.

In addition to iNNpulsa, the trade mission is being sponsored by the U.S. Commercial Service stationed at the Embassy in Bogota and the Intellectual Property & Emerging Technologies practice group of Florida-based law firm of Becker & Poliakoff, which operates GAIN, the Global Academic Innovation Network.

"iNNpulsa's goal is to connect universities, research centers and technology development and commercialization organizations in Colombia with experts from around the world to share best practices and collaborate on opportunities for commercialization," said Catalina Ortiz, the General Manager of iNNpulsa. "These connections will be just the beginning of collaborative relationships between Colombia's preeminent academic institutions and many top universities and research institutions throughout the United States."

Cameron Werker, Senior Officer of the U.S. Commercial Service at the American Embassy in Bogota, commented: "INNpulsa is taking an important step to accelerate research at Colombia's major universities and research organizations. This innovative bi-lateral trade mission gives U.S. universities a closer look at the work of their Colombian counterparts while the Colombian institutions benefit from the sharing of American know-how."

Richard Litman, head of Becker & Poliakoff's Intellectual Property & Emerging Technologies Practice Group, added: "Colombia is well on its way towards developing an infrastructure that supports academic innovation and commercialization. We are excited to bring these major U.S. institutions to Bogota to begin the collaboration process."

The following Colombian institutions were chosen by iNNpulsa to be participants in the Technology Transfer Trade Mission:

• RUPIV
• National University of Colombia, Bogotá
• University of Caldas
• Northern University 
• University Eafit
• Universidad Industrial de Santander
• Universidad del Cauca
• University CES
• University of Antioquia
• Military University
• School of Engineering of Antioquia
• Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
• Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga
• Universidad Javeriana Bogota
• COTECMAR
• Corporación Biotec
• Biointropic
• Fundación Cardiovascular de Colombia
• CIDET
• CECIF

About U.S. Commercial Service

The U.S. Commercial Service is the trade promotion arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. U.S. Commercial Service trade professionals in over 100 U.S. cities and in more than 75 countries help U.S. companies get started in exporting or increase sales to new global markets. Details at: http://www.trade.gov/cs/.

About Becker & Poliakoff

Becker & Poliakoff is a commercial law firm headquartered in South Florida. With 18 offices, including one in Europe, and offices in New York and Washington, DC, the firm expanded its Intellectual Property practice through its acquisition in 2012 of Litman Law, founded over 30 years ago. Becker & Poliakoff has experience in international intellectual property (IP) law, trade regulation, and technology business matters. The firm helps with IP rights worldwide, and with the global development and commercialization of technology. It assists research institutions with IP management, technology transfer and multinational collaborative relationships. http://www.becker-poliakoff.com/.

About iNNpulsa

iNNpulsa Colombia is the newly created Colombian Government agency established to promote high-impact entrepreneurship and innovation to boost development. Colombia is pursuing a dynamic integration to the world economy with new technologies and knowledge-based businesses. Therefore, it encourages the formation of companies that create and capture extraordinary value, that are based on knowledge, and innovation, and have the potential of rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. iNNpulsa is committed to creating synergies between Colombian universities and technology centers with international institutions to move promising scientific researches to the markets. www.innpulsacolombia.com.