TECHNE issue n. 30, Technology Transfer and New Research Horizons – Connecting University, Industry and Community to Innovate and Transform Society, revisits and updates the reflections first outlined in the 2014 monograph Research and Project Knowledge Transfer. Over a decade later, the issue explores how the relationship between research, design, and innovation has evolved within architectural technology, in the context of the university’s expanding missions academic, entrepreneurial, and social. While the construction sector remains structurally fragmented and slow to absorb technological innovation, digitalization, and R&D investment, the contributions in this issue reveal new directions emerging from academic entrepreneurship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and public engagement.

Studies document the growing role of university-driven innovation ecosystems - spin-offs, patents, incubators, and research partnerships - focused on environmental resilience, digital applications, and cultural heritage management. At the same time, the “fourth mission” of universities gains importance through co-production of knowledge with local institutions, enterprises, and civil society. These cooperative models - co-governance, co-design, and co-management - strengthen territorial innovation and promote socially responsible, sustainable transformation.

Finally, education emerges as a pivotal component of technology transfer, enabling the formation of new professional profiles equipped to act within complex, interdisciplinary design contexts. The issue thus frames technology transfer not as a unidirectional process but as a multidimensional driver of cultural, social, and environmental innovation.