Recent history, and even more so the current state of the economy, has brought to the fore factors that foster knowledge-based competitiveness, particularly technological progress and innovation. In countries like Spain, its importance is increased because its international position requires it to compete not only with the most developed countries of Europe, America and Asia, but also with new emerging countries of great strength.

In this context, it is rarely borne in mind that the promotion of innovation and, more importantly, the positive impact that innovation can have on the productive fabric in the form of competitive gains, requires not only a renewed research and innovative effort in the different areas and fields of production, but also the development of more and better methods of analysis and evaluation of these processes. In other words, innovation efficiency needs analytical, training and management support in fields not strictly technological but economic and social studies.

Progress in understanding how innovation works, is exploited and enhanced requires an integrated approach. We are convinced that the University can and should play a much more active and socially relevant role in this matter, It concentrates a large part of the skills needed for research and evaluation of innovation processes. That is why the launch of the Extraordinary Chair that we are presenting, has a strategic character that wants to contribute to change the situation by integrating efforts from different areas of what we know as the triangle Science-Administration-Enterprise.

The Creation of the Extraordinary Chair between the Forum of Innovative Companies (FEI) and the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) of Innovation Studies (CESIN) has been possible thanks to a long process of collaboration within the FEI between the world of innovative companies and academia, to understand and support the presence of innovation in Spain as a lever of development and social welfare.