Universidad Politecnica Salesiana (UPS) implemented a new organizational model taht aims to transform society; an ecosystem based on innovation that has produced positive results in research and joint work with students, professors and researchers within the university community. 

This is the proposal of Juan Pablo Salgado's doctoral thesis titled: "Innovazione organizzativa per la valorizzazione della ricerca scientifica". Juan Pablo, Head of Research at the university, was awarded a recognition for the best doctoral thesis by Università degli Studi di Ferrara in Italy on June 4th during the "IUSS Day" ceremony.

This model turns the university into an organization-system where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It is a live organism that is explained based on biomimetics. Production and management of knowledge in the "Ecosystem – University" is done under the perspective of common good in an environment that encourages skills and represents the end, medium and foundation for people's development. This allows the gap between university and society to be reduced and creates a positive dialogue between critical sense and instrumental reason. 

This model is supported by three important pillars: Teaching, Research and Community Involvement, where the core is the person, who controls his /her own actions and functions better in this environment than in others. This way, teachers and students are associated in research groups, educational innovation groups, innovation groups - StartUPS entrepreneurship, and interact forming an ecosystem university through the research councils of each branch, the acceleration of the ecosystem, the valorization of research, mentor schools and change management.