The paper deals with technological and managerial innovation transfer to small and medium sized enterprises. A comprehensive framework is presented, identifying a networked architecture in which different actors (universities, other R&D centers, consulting companies, the European Union, national government, local public administration) interact. In so doing, the need of a specific promoting role is pointed out. Consequently, introduction of an innovation center (IC) responsible for the whole transfer process is proposed. Within this organizational unit, the role of innovation promoter (IP), that is the interface with the specific SME, is analyzed and discussed. Finally, a general scheme of IC and IP actions and competences is presented.