Introduction

The Innovation Agenda is a public policy mechanism for the social management of knowledge and technology. It is a working tool that makes possible the effective participation of the different social actors involved in the creation, absorption, dissemination and use of knowledge, technology and innovation. Also, the Innovation Agenda is an instrument for the negotiation of the diverse interests of these actors, allowing the democratic selection of priorities for investment that provides the opportunity to co-finance activities, under the idea of shared risks and benefits.

The mechanism of the Innovation Agenda consists, in the first place, of defining a problematic area that may come from institutional planning or from the initiative of diverse groups and social organizations, on which a topic for the convocation of the social and institutional agents associated with it is defined. The structured interaction of these actors generates a list of problems to be solved with knowledge and technology, either through research, training and human capital formation or through information-communication systems and development, adaptation or application of technologies projects. The result is a public demand of the local capacities of research, training, application and information in the form of projects that are evaluated by professional quality standards such as techno-economic viability, socioeconomic relevance, and also, an important difference appears, the potential of associativity generated by such projects.

The possibility to line up scientific production with the interests of the actors involved and the needs of society, suggests strategies of convening, coordination and orientation to research with clearly defined parameters, such as excellence, relevance, opportunity, feasibility and social impact. Adding up the intelligence from various areas of society and promoting social transformation, stimulated by research, training, application and adaptation of knowledge in many ways, around specific problems, is what we know as innovation.

The innovation, as we have proposed, requires: to approach local situations with an extended convocation, realizing that each one knows something and contributes with an interesting perspective about the local reality; to promote the existing competences recognition and guarantee the knowledge access for all; to identify potentially successful actors that star and lead the innovation processes at a local level and as a great importance element in front of the possibility of providing solutions from the local to the general, not hierarchical, and develop cooperation relationship and strategic links sustainable in time.

In this way, the projects are focused on promoting innovative alternatives to face the complexity of human problems, both individual and collective, as well as the actors' gearing, articulating them towards more efficient, self-sustained and competitive forms of organization.

The innovation system must promote a leadership network over a process that is characterized by:

• The discussion orientation, exchanges and coincidences towards the scientific and technological knowledge application to situations whose solution has a positive impact on life quality.
• Agreements with respect to relevant, timely and feasible connections between research lines and commonly identified problems.
• The linkages, motivation and commitment between different institutions or individualities that coincides in research and management topics.
• The dissemination, collection, systematization and relationship of the information makes easier the management of science and technology, and the collaboration between actors for the formulation of oriented research projects, training, adaptation and technological application.