Research on technology transfer, industrial liaison, cooperative research and other forms of cooperation between universities and industry tend to concentrate on the links between universities and firms as if they were the only players in the game. Thus typically, academic and policy literature describes the process of such collaboration, the organizational, legal, administrative arrangements and settings, the factors that enhance, or conversely, impede cooperation, and the outcomes, projected and real, that are attributed to the university—industry cooperation. This article, starting from a different premise, looks into university—industry liaison from the perspective of a regional system of innovation, identifying various institutions in such a system, and their communication and interaction. It is in this framework that the role of universities and the process of technology transfer is analysed.