The paper aims to highlight the role of university technology transfer centres in local, regional and national economic progress. Universities should aim at setting up multidisciplinary working groups to capitalize on opportunities in innovative and business environments. Partnerships with public or private units can ensure the creation of an appropriate perception of the transfer of modern, sustainable technologies that protect the environment and health. Issues regarding the state of innovative-entrepreneurial systems, the framework of opportunities, especially those aimed at the regional development of disadvantaged areas, can be addressed and measures can be taken to change the mentality in line with new trends at European level. At local and regional level, the support that companies and SMEs can benefit from in order to maintain their competitiveness within the competitive business environment, specific to the market economy, is ensured. Particular attention is paid to capitalizing on intellectual property, demonstrating the role of innovative structures in promoting development through science. The paper exposes the way of efficient organizational structure of technology transfer centres developed by universities, a structure that must be based on a complex staffing scheme, consisting of qualified people in different fields of activity. Moreover, all proposed employees must constantly participate in specializations, conferences organized in partnership with specialized entities such as OSIM, EPO or WIPO, which can contribute to the development of the capacity to provide specialized consulting services at a high quality level.

Acknowledgements: “The work of the first author is supported by the project ANTREPRENORDOC, in the framework of Human Resources Development Operational Programme 2014-2020, financed from the European Social Fund under the contract number 36355/23.05.2019 HRD OP /380/6/13 – SMIS Code: 123847. The work of the second author was carried out in the framework of the research project DREAM (Dynamics of the REsources and technological Advance in harvesting Marine renewable energy), supported by the Romanian Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding – UEFISCDI, grant number PN-III-P4-ID- PCE-2020-0008.”