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Innovation capabilities increasingly depend on Higher Education and advanced knowledge. Deciding when and how to foster such capabilities requires a normative approach, as the notion of development when understood as the expansion of freedoms and capabilities that enable people to be agents in the pursuit of valuable lives. Several universities in different regions combine teaching, research, and outreach in ways that promote development. The paper explores the case of public Latin American Universities. They are the main generators of advanced knowledge in Latin America. They frequently have an autonomous system of governance that includes student participation. They participate in several networks of interactive learning processes that often include deprived sectors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, some of those universities showed social commitment and international research level that backed collaboration between several actors in innovation processes that solved some health and social problems. They are potential Developmental Universities.