Knowledge and innovation are the most important factors, which define the development and competitiveness of enterprises, nations, regions and even individuals. In this sense, the organization of learning and knowledge processes, serves as an increasing basis for competition, thus universities emerge as actors in regional and national innovation systems, being responsible for creating and providing knowledge for industrial innovation. The interaction between university-industry-government translated into the concept of the triple helix takes the university to a new level, transforming higher education institutions into entrepreneurial universities. In order to harness knowledge for innovation, industry-university links have to be stimulated through various mechanisms to support innovation, such as promoting academic entrepreneurship, developing science parks, incubator centers and establishing an infrastructure to support the transfer of technology. In this sense, this study aims to analyze the role of UFRRJ in the formation of an academic innovation ecosystem addressing historical, operational, administrative, financial and regimental aspects, also aiming to identify the results created in this performance, such as joint research and development projects with external entities, patent filings, creation of technology-based companies, addressing the external economic dynamism in which UFRRJ is inserted. In this perspective, through an exploratory research, this study aims to constitute a current portrait of the evolution process of the University's innovation ecosystem using sources of evidence: documentary research, bibliographic research, data collection and interviews.