FGV project to boost Brazil’s defense industrial base is selected by CAPES

A research project proposal called “Public policies, industry, dual use and national defense: Evidence for a development agenda for the Brazilian defense industrial base,” led by FGV, has been selected by the Brazilian Education Ministry’s graduate education support agency, CAPES, to receive financial support as part of the fifth edition of its Program to Support Teaching and Scientific and Technological Research in National Defense, or “Pro-Defense Program” for short (governed by CAPES Public Notice 36 of 2023).

The project, which involves a network of Brazilian institutions such as the Army Command and General Staff School, Air Force University, Defense Academy, Fluminense Federal University and Mato Grosso Federal University, as well as Colombian educational institutions such as the University of Valle and Colombian National University, obtained the maximum possible score for merit analysis criteria, ranking among the 15 initiatives recommended for financial support from CAPES. In all, the Pro-Defense Program received 79 research project proposals from across Brazil.

According to Professor Paulo Negreiros Figueiredo of the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (FGV EBAPE), one of the proposal’s two joint coordinators, “Our project aims to explore the intersection between public policies, industry, dual-use technologies and national defense, in order to contribute to the promotion of a development agenda for the Brazilian defense industrial base, encompassing its multifaceted social, strategic, economic and technological dimensions. This is a high-priority objective in the National Defense Strategy and, more recently, in the New Brazilian Industry Program.”

According to Professor Guilherme R. Garcia Marques, the project’s other joint coordinator, “The multidisciplinary approach envisaged in our proposal, integrating elements of administration, economics and geopolitics, will be fundamental if we are to make progress in understanding the complex challenges facing our defense industrial base.”

The Pro-Defense Program is executed through a partnership between the Defense Ministry and CAPES, with the aim of stimulating joint research projects and graduate training in national defense, in order to develop, consolidate and disseminate Brazilian thinking in this strategic area.