The Inesc P&D Brasil, brazilian ICT and INESC TEC, Associated Labor from Portugal, since 2009 promote in Brazil the foundation of a cooperation network to research, development and technology transfer, nominated Rede INESC BRASIL.

Rede INESC BRAZIL’s partners are to INESC P&D BRAZIL and INESC TEC, also a prestigious Brazilian universities as well as prominent institutions dedicate to research and development, united by a regulatory agreement to the terms and modalities of international cooperation in which they propose to act together.

The distinct aspect of the Rede INESC BRAZIL from the other network cooperation traditional models is the science and technologic management suggested – inspired in a European Union model that is current and official in Portugal, having as a base a nonprofit private association which guarantee the strategic coordination and financial rationality – INESC P&d Brazil. This association is primarily consisted by Rede INESC BRAZIL members who feel capable and devoted to adhere it.

This network’s mission is to participate of Brazil’s scientific and technological development and the international cooperation in engineering, information technology, communication and related sciences. The network structure in an international partnership mode also aims to expand possibilities of Brazilian partners, having their participation in European Union projects scope, opening possibilities of internationalization through propagation of excellence areas in applied research existing in many Brazil’s technological centers.

To its mission accomplished, Rede INESC BRASIL uses the innovation conceptual model based on science contemplating many levels, ranging from conception till the knowledge appreciation. The proceeding of Rede INESC BRAZIL develops by the performance of large projects, and organizations of large joint initiatives, multidisciplinary, and performed in consortium, similar to the projects promoted in Seventh Framework Program from European Union. On the other hand, Rede INESC BRASIL also allows their partners to working out projects of P&D and advanced consulting service under contractual form, as well as, knowledge appreciation and intellectual property from the technologies licensing to the own incubation of companies spin-off in Brazilian technological parks.

In parallel, the Rede INESC BRASIL’s proceeding potentiates the advanced human resources formation and the researchers exchange, through financial results gained from P&D projects development, as well as results licensing and patents, which may be reversed to scholarships and researchers support to their P&D development activities.

Therefore, it is important to emphasize to this proposal introduction, the opportunity of skills aggregation in many knowledge areas in all Brazilian territory. This will be performed with cooperation actions and projects, enabling the change and technical interchange between Brazil’s research centers in equal conditions, as well as the developments internationalization and Brazilian competencies by participation in research and international development projects, through the networks aggregation which INESC TEC has already its participation.

The management model (also a differential to this project) offer in addition to the use of enshrined conception in Europe, in relation to research transformation to product and creation of high-tech companies, breaking the paradigm in knowledge appreciation – with direct impact on the interest approach of technology companies and existing services, or the ones to be settle in the country, to attract support and competitiveness in development and modernization of their process.

In addition to their promoters, INESC P&D Brasil and INESC TEC, the Rede INESC Brasil already rely with the following members/Universities:

• University of Sao Paulo/Sao Carlos – USP/SC
• State University of Santa Catarina – UDESC
• University of Campinas – UNICAMP
• Sao Paulo State University – UNESP
• Federal University of Bahia – UFBA
• Federal University of Campina Grande – UFCG
• Federal University of Goias – UFG
• Federal University of Itajuba – UNIFEI
• Federal University of Juiz de Fora – UFJF
• Federal University of Santa Catarina – UFSC
• Federal University of Santa Maria – UFSM
• Federal University of Sergipe – UFS
• Federal University of Maranhao – UFMA
• Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul – UFMS
• Federal University of Para – UFPA
• Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN
• Federal University of Vale do Sao Francisco – UNIVASF
• Fluminense Federal University – UFF
• Federal Technological University of Parana – UTFPR

In addition, INESC P&D Brazil has many active partnerships and memoranda of understanding with the following international institutions:

• Brunel University London (United Kingdom)
• Consorzio Intellimech (Intellimech Consortium) – iMech (Italy)
• Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – CSIR (Gana)
• Institute of Physical Energetics – IPE (Latvia)
• King’s College London – KCL (United Kingdom)
• Lappeenranta University of Technology – LUT (Finland)
• PACE Aerospace Engineering and Information Technology GmbH (Germany)
• Politecnico di Milano (Milan Polytechnic) – PoliMi (Italy)
• Public Health Foundation of India – PHFI (India)
• Turku University – TURUN (Finland)
• United Nations University – UNU (Japan)
• Universidad de Atacama (University of Atacama)– UDA (Chile)
• Universidad de Concepción (University of Concepción) – UdeC (Chile)
• Universidad de La Frontera (University of La Frontera) – UFRO (Chile)
• Universidad de Santiago de Chile (University of Santiago de Chile) – USACH (Chile)
• Universidad Nacional de San Juan (National University of San Juan) – UNSJ (Argentina)
• Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (National University of Tucumán) – UNT (Argentina)
• Universidad Nacional del Comahue (National University of Comahue) – UNCo (Argentina)
• Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (Metropolitan Technology University) – UTEM (Chile)
• Universidade Nacional de La Plata (National University of La Plata) – UNLP (Argentina)
• University of Oxford (United Kingdom)

REDE INESC Brasil is a network of cooperation in research, development and technology transfer in defined engineering areas. This network consisted in a group of Brazilian universities, science and technology parks, institutions dedicated to research and development, and the INESC TEC in Portugal is managed by INESC P&D Brasil – Institute of Systems and Computers Engineering, Brazil’s Research and Development, nonprofits private association and one of its own promoters.

This cooperation network’s double model and of network’s management association is conceived in a way to maximize the opportunities in the Brazilian context, taking into account their particular characteristics, also to facilitate the cooperation and relations between public universities and private entities, exploring the determined architecture by Brazilian Government to acceptance and support to the networks of scientific and technical cooperation.

Its is an improved internationalization activity, after fifteen years experience in INESC TEC projects accomplished under partnerships and Brazil’s contract, either under P&D programs, either by P&D direct hiring services from Brazilian companies, as well as a strong presence of scholarship students and Brazilian scientists from INESC TEC in Portugal.

Therefore, this project aims to organize the scientific development luso-Brazilian in cooperative form, and potentiate a substantial increase of volume of the P&D joint activities and technology transfer, with scale economies and reduction of acquisition costs and actions support, taking into account namely the transatlantic distance.

This increase of activity capacity should turn into a direct increase of scientific investment and by an acceleration of know how transfer processes for economic agents creators of technologies, be equipments manufacture or providers of software service or consultancy. In parallel, it should result in a sustainability rate of its own institution with an existence of a P&D service component in its budget structure, decreasing dependence on public funding, increasing from economy fundings to the science, creating a direct multiplier effect for the non-competitive public fundings.

INESC TEC has more than a decade of experience in Brazil’s projects and in cooperation with Brazilian companies, either with universities or companies, in research and development projects, in advanced consulting and also in technological business cooperation between incubated companies by INESC Porto, coordinating entity from INESC TEC, and for Brazilian universities. In matters of projects in Brazil, INESC TEC has developed a very solid activity, in special on the field of Power Electric Systems. This activity has been consisted in P&D projects (research and development) with electric power concessionaries, funded according to regulatory basis of ANEEL and also by way of direct contract with ONS – National Operator of Power System, to the provision of consulting service. In this context, it has developed many relevant activities highlighting the regulations in force in Brazil related to connection of distributed generation and renewable to electrical grids, design by a team of experts from the Portuguese Institution. In some of these works, we gain the cooperation of researcher groups from UFPE – Federal University of Pernambuco. Together with PROMOM company, INESC Porto gave its contribution to PRODIST regulation – Proceedings of Power Energy on National Electric system elaborated by ANEEL.

Apart from these activities in Brazil, INESC TEC for many years has welcome graduated students (visitor PhD student or to a full Phd) and PhD researchers coming from many Brazilian universities, from North to South Brazil, and distributed by the many areas of the knowledge covered by the institution. Nowadays, the Brazilian community constitutes the most important foreign groups working daily on the Porto’s installations and includes professors and Brazilian PhD researchers or even Portuguese, who has already been professors in Brazilian universities.

Complementarily, currently works in Brazilian universities professors whose Doctorate was gained after years of working to INESC TEC or has done a prolonged pos-doc traineeship, specially in Energy fields, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics. Are referred in this context entities such as Federal University of Pará (UFPA), Pontifícia University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI) or the Estadual University of São Paulo Júlio Mesquita Filho (UNESP). On the other hand, INESC TEC has participate in research activities together with Brazilian universities, be insert in european programs (i.e, ALBAN or CYTED) or in programs Bilateral Luso-brazilian ( FCT/CAPES and FCT/CNPq).

It is interesting to mention that the agreement between CNPq and FEUP ( Faculty of Porto University’s engineering) which allows introduce PhD students to INESC TEC ( as a associated institute of research to FEUP).

Also important to refer that INESC TEC in some cases facilitated the direct integration of Brazilian partners in European Union projects – UFSC case – Federal University of Santa Catarina.

Para mais informações sobre o INESC TEC clique aqui.

The Project of this network has the base of a complex description about the organization and sustainability of P&D activity (Research and Development), with identification of the main factors among, which enumerates in a model of SWOT analysis:

Strength

• The competitive factors favorable to the organizational model of INESC P&D Brazil in Brazilian context: its own character of non profit science and technology association (in Brazil the current model is administrative foundations); its integrated multidiscipline character; its capacity of taking the knowledge generation to the creation of spin-off companies and finally its management model of enterprise character, with very few examples in Brazil in the science and technology market;
• The diversity and quality of competencies which the group of Brazilian universities, partners of the project gathers, with evident complementarities in many cases;
• The regional coverage that the partners represent, involving already 05 of the 26 Brazilian States;
• The internationalization of Brazilian development in excellence areas together with the European community.
• The concepts modernization of applied research through the diffusion of international methodologies of technologic innovation politics, and competitiveness from many business sectors.

Weaknesses

• The lack of practical mechanisms of support from Brazilian and Portuguese governments to the business internationalization of science institutions with juridical practice in way of non profit private association;
• The shortage of support programs and sustained actions from luso-brazilian partners, having only generic character programs which makes difficult the continuity of established relationships, and basically finance only the journeys.
• The lack of experience from the Brazilian academics institutions about the suggested internationalization’s kind, which does not allow to gain some lessons from the occurred experiences;
• The lack of Brazilian juridical and academic tradition in the activities structuring of research under a non profit private association way, dependents of public universities and consequent administrative obstacles and formal and informal resistance to an unusual model.

Opportunities

• The high rate of Brazilian economic growth and the consequent search of technology, namely in the expertise areas of INESC P&D Brazil, INESC TEC and the Brazilian universities partners;
• The presence in the brazilian markets of relevant Portuguese economics agents, whose INESC TEC and INESC P&D Brazil have the privileged relationship in Portugal and third countries, and also perform technological acquisition and P&D expenditure in that south American country: a) EDP group; b) Portugal Telecom Group; c) EFACEC group;
• The frequent wish of academies for innovative solutions of science and technology management is that overcome structural constraints consensually felt;
• The evident politic signal in Brazil of internationalization’s favoritism;
• The unequivocal political signal in Brazil of incentive to an acceleration of technology transfer process in a productively way of science centers to the companies;
• The necessity of increasing the competitiveness and internationalization of Brazilian technology companies;

Threats

• The inflexibility factors of legal frameworks in Brazil, in federal and state level which makes difficult the participation’s transparency of public universities in non profit private association;
• The scale that should be projected to intervention in Brazil, coherent with the country’s scale but in a superior range to the business and activities in Portugal.
• The incomprehension from political or economics agents in Portugal and Brazil, about the acceptance of the business internationalization also covers the knowledge field.

In Brazil, the operational framework model of research activities in the federal Universities has been conducted by foundations which were designed to enable, under Brazilian law, the contracts management with the economics agents, the additional remuneration of researchers and the captivation of overheads by the publics universities.

The model proposed by Rede INESC Brazil distinguishes from the model of foundations to be able to contribute a pro-active organization on the search and promotion of projects, and for having the potential to target ambitious and long term projects implemented under a consortium concept, similar to the projects in EU. It is a form of science and technology management in which that the administrative machinery is subordinated to the productive machinery, which is what defines the strategy, the resources, the performance and the sizing of the teams, in special the one which can assure the additional administrative tasks.

This model is similar to INESC TEC organization in Portugal, and taking the advantage offered by the law of innovation, is the cooperation network in research, development and transfer of technology (PD&TT) in the engineering defined fields, operated by INESC P&D Brazil, according to the following structure:

Therefore, the network includes a mechanism of collective production of science and technology, and a management model being an overall concept.

The proposal offers also an internationalization mechanism of double meaning, when joining the European institution to Brazilian institutions. INESC TEC can introduce to Brazil its technologic offer of a differential management, through the implemented projects in consortium. However, the Brazilian ability can also takes advantage of the INESC TEC presence and experience to face the national and international challenges ( specially in the EU framework, but also on Latin America reminder where exists interference from INESC TEC).

This network’s mission is to promote the scientific and technological development in Brazil, and the international cooperation in electrical engineering and computing, also in themes like information technologies, communication and electronic by means of the formatting of research activity pre-competitive, having as a goal multidisciplinary projects and performed in consortium, with a dual concern of scientific excellence and of industrial impact, from the idea of promoted projects on the EU framework programs.

The INESC BRASIL network is set out into protocols and terms of technical and scientific cooperation celebrated between the followers of the network and the promoters, INESC P&D Brazil and INESC TEC. Network members are not obligated to become associated partners of INESC P&D Brasil unless they wish for, fitting in the category of INESC P&D Brazil’s institutional associates.

The following entities are Brazil’s network partners:

• INESC P&D Brazil – Engineering Institute of Systems and Computers, Research and Development of Brazil – Network’s Coordinator
• INESC TEC – Technology and Science, Associated Laboratory coordinated by INESC Porto, Engineering Institute of Systems and Computers from Porto, Portugal
• University of Sao Paulo/Sao Carlos – USP/SC
• State University of Santa Catarina – UDESC
• University of Campinas – UNICAMP
• Sao Paulo State University – UNESP
• Federal University of Bahia – UFBA
• Federal University of Campina Grande – UFCG
• Federal University of Goias – UFG
• Federal University of Itajuba – UNIFEI
• Federal University of Juiz de Fora – UFJF
• Federal University of Santa Catarina – UFSC
• Federal University of Santa Maria – UFSM
• Federal University of Sergipe – UFS
• Federal University of Maranhao – UFMA
• Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul – UFMS
• Federal University of Para – UFPA
• Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN
• Federal University of Vale do Sao Francisco – UNIVASF
• Fluminense Federal University – UFF
• Federal Technological University of Parana – UTFPR

The INESC BRASIL Network is being structured by agents and local coordinators, recognized in each adherent institution, whose action will be coordinated by one network’s coordinator.

The local agents and Coordinator’s role with no loss from other actions are:

• Promote the generation, release and discussion of new project ideas
• Stimulate the needed partners to forming consortiums
• Identify oportunities
• Facilitate the relationship with industry, services and public administration presenting a unique interface
• Organize the protection and valorization of intellectual propriety
• Disseminate information through the network and contribute to the establishment of one communication platform and common information sharing
• Contribute to the internationalization of Brazilians associated by availability of information and organization of the success to opportunities on the EU programs
• Unify organizational proceedings, from the descriptive document format and technical annexes till the inclusion of terms on legal contracts.
• Disseminate a culture of organization that privilege the alliance, the proceeding in consortium, a multidisciplinary, an internationalization, an excellence, the professionalism, the science and technology management, the economic reasonableness, the interaction with industry and the comprehension of value chains and production sector to the knowledge valorization.

The performance of local coordinator should privilege the personal contacts, and promote the acquisition and use of a resource structure of videoconference which approach the groups geographically distant.

The local coordinators should be looked at as agents with initiative, mobilizers, and with special responsibility to propose and promote projects on the theme management of science and technology, that benefits from its own experience and reinforce its quality on Brazil and on the network.

The network’s coordinator and local coordinators, will create an Operational Management Board of the network, which will work in a collegial way under chairmanship of network’s coordinator.

Will be established formal mechanisms of connection between Rede INESC BRASIL and INESC P&D Brasil, in a way of assure the viability of management on proposal model. In particular, the network’s coordinator should be at the same time the Director of INESC P&D Brasil. On the other hand, the association is to be a signatory to an agreement with the network’s members designed to adjust its function as a manager of Rede INESC BRASIL. Other mechanisms will be implemented according to the gained experience.

The Network will have as a mission

• Studants exchange programs
• The promoting of research and extension projects in partnership of several joined institutions
• The promoting research projects and extension in international partnership
• The promoting synergy between knowledge generation and technology transfer
• The promoting economic value from knowledge.
• Demonstration of economic sustainability from management model of science and technology that attend on an integrated manner to the production chain to the knowledge valorization.

The projects execution in partnership between many cohesive institutions is the motivation and the network’s distinctive characteristic. The financial management of these projects, attending to each program in specific, where the project will be introduced, could be ensured by any of the partners or by the network’s operator, INESC P&D Brasil, considered in each case, the advantages of viable alternative solutions.

The partnerships should include basic or applied P&D projects, actions of university extension, technology transfer or advanced education. The network’s international position will be always of assistant and potentiating of capacities from partners entities, not being able in any case to create organization or develop an activity that assume a character of competitors.

For the partner entities will be active agents of activity promotion and sustainability of Rede INESC Brasil, contributing for its national and international credibility.

In Brazil, is emerging organizations with some similarity inspired by international agents, that in fact act in commercial benefit to those international agents. These organizations have caused mixed reactions, and in many cases potentiated the arising of antibodies on brazilian society.

It is intended to distinguished clearly INESC P&D Brasil and Rede INESC BRASIL from these business initiatives, emphasizing the cooperation aspects of excellence on science and innovation, and also of internationalization.

The alliance of credible and prestigious nonprofits institutions of Brazil and Europe dedicated to promotions of knowledge, and consequent economic and social development should have a potential of credibility, both national and international, which will enable to channeling benefits to the members of the two countries.

There is a good receptivity of Brazilian Government via CNPq, in form of cooperation in network and aims also the internationalization.

There is also a positive receptivity of the Portugal Government, via FCT ( Science and Technology Foundation, from MEC, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education), which will help to boost supports and accessions of entities which could be interesting to INESC P&D Brasil and Rede INESC BRASIL.

The joint politic support of Brazil and Portugal Governments will give a projection and credibility to the project, which certainly will reduce the risks necessarily involved, affording being included the initiative as an example of virtuous cooperation between the two countries, and having a positive initiative according to the politic of science and technology internationalization of corresponding governments.