Abstract

The system of relations between University and territory has been modelled in many forms in the policy arena and in academic fields. Among the most recent, there is the Knowledge Interchange (KI), used to indicate a collaborative network between research, market, community and political authorities based on the exchange of knowledge. The KI proposes an overcoming of the model based on the transfer of technologies (TT) and on the crushing of the University as secondary partner for the applied research to immediate commercial or political expendability, relying on research to play an equal role as policy builder and facilitator of collaborative practices between social actors. The article historically reconstructs the complexity of relations between University and territory, elaborating a critique to Pure Science, Triple Helix and academic capitalism, with a focus on the condition of the Italian university system. In addition, it proposes a theoretical introduction of the KI model and, in the final part, describes and comments on an application experience, the «Piemonte 2029» project.