Event highlights the importance of intersectoral cooperation to promote innovation in Brazil

“Innovation is a political, economic and personal choice that society needs to make,” said the vice-president of the Fundação Getulio Vargas, Marcos Cintra, during the opening of the Innovation for Competitiveness event, which took place on March 27 in the Salão Nobre of the São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP). At the event, experts from industry, companies and startups met to discuss with researchers how to turn research into innovation. Among the debates, one conclusion was unanimous: the way to promote innovation depends on cross-sector cooperation between academics and representatives of government and industry.

According to the Web of Science platform, Brazil is the 13th country among those that produce the most scientific articles in the world, but according to the Global Innovation Index, Brazil ranks 50th when it comes to innovation. “This indicates that we are not making the right choices to develop the potential we have in order to solve the country's pressing problems using science and technology,” said Cintra.

The vice-president shared the opening table with the manager of Ecological Transition and Innovation at the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), Alessandro Rizzato; the director of Innovation and Institutional Relations at the Brazilian Company for Industrial Research and Innovation (Embrapii), Igor Nazareth; the director of FGV Ventures, Luciana Cualheta; and the deputy director of FGV EAESP, Tales Andreassi.

Cross-sector cooperation to promote innovation

During the first round of presentations, Rizzato introduced one of CNI's main products today: the Business Mobilization for Innovation (MEI). “We propose to unite the three main players in the innovation ecosystem - industry, academia and government - all with the same vision in pursuit of a common goal, which is industrial innovation in the country,” he said.

The Ecological Transition and Innovation manager also pointed out that there is an online tool that publicizes all the innovation promotion tools available in the country. This is MEI Tools, which provides information on calls for proposals, funding lines, programs, scholarships, partnerships, financial contributions, economic subsidies, support for projects and much more.

In view of the discrepancy between the position in the index of academic publications and the implementation of innovation, Embrapii's Director of Innovation and Institutional Relations, Igor Nazareth, pointed out that Embrapii arose precisely in this context, to address how to use scientific knowledge to generate innovative products and services for companies.

“We do this (transform scientific knowledge into innovation) through Embrapii's 93 units, which operate in all sectors of the economy - such as chemistry, biotechnology, nanotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, among others - taking the best that exists in academia and making it available to companies,” Nazareth explained. 

According to the director, Embrapii is the materialization of the triple helix, bringing together government, academia and companies, with a total of 15,564 employees developing projects to meet the demands of the Brazilian private sector.

"Any company, at any time, can go to any Embrapii unit and request an innovation. Based on this demand, a project will be structured to present the company with the necessary investments and the appropriate stages for developing this project," he said.

The director presented two projects that exemplify how academia can solve problems for Brazilian companies. The first is the Machine Learning Using Synthetic Images of Automobiles project, developed by the Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG) for the company Cilia Tecnologia, whose aim is to develop an AI methodology that carries out estimates after car accidents, based on photos of the damage to the vehicles, in order to calculate the costs and repairs that will need to be made. Find out more about this innovation.

The other project is GuarAI: Research and Development of a Visual Product Inspection System Using AI and IOT. Developed at the Metrópole Digital unit of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) for the company Guararapes Confecções S/A, this project aims to develop an inspection system for companies in the fabric industry, using AI and Internet of Things (IOT) techniques to detect flaws in rolls of knitwear or fabric, allowing companies to find out about possible flaws in the process and thus save time and production, avoiding rework. Find out more about this project.

Factors preventing Brazil from increasing innovation rates

The deputy director of FGV EAESP, Tales Andreassi, pointed out 5 reasons why Brazil is so uncompetitive when it comes to technological innovation and is unable to catch up with the most developed countries in terms of innovation.

"The first is the low investment in P&D: Brazil invests 1%, while the US invests 3.5% and Korea 4.5%. The second point is that in Brazil most investment comes from the public sector, while in other countries it comes from the private sector. The third point is the instability of public policies related to P&D, we had a big cut in funding in the area of science and technology in the previous government. The fourth reason is the lack of support for digitalization and Industry 4.0, which is causing a major delay in the adoption of artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet of Things (IOT)," he said.

The professor also pointed out the critical points that need to be addressed if the country is to reach a higher standard in innovation. According to Andreassi, low competitiveness due to the high tax burden, poor infrastructure and functional illiteracy are some of the crucial points that need to be addressed in order to increase innovation in the country.

FGV Ventures: FGV's business accelerator

The event also provided space for FGV Ventures director Luciana Cualheta to present the Fundação's accelerator, which is the first university accelerator in the country. The program, which lasts four months, is aimed at startups from all over Brazil, with the aim of training entrepreneurs through workshops given by professors from the FGV network. In total, 87 startups have gone through the program in 17 acceleration batches since 2016, adding up to more than R$ 600 million in valuation and R$ 150 million in investment.

To take part in the program, startups must have a validated MVP with real customers, i.e. a first functional version of the product. “Business values must also be socially and environmentally responsible, with diverse and complementary teams that think not only about financial gains, but also about the externalities caused by the business,” he said. Find out more about FGV Ventures.

The event also included technical panels on innovation in sustainability, innovation in the automotive sector and innovation in health. Also taking part in the debates were researchers from FGV and the University of New South Wales (UNSW); representatives from Braskem, the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), the Brazilian Association of Automotive Engineering (AEA); entrepreneurs from the startups Carristas, WILU, and IWASTE; as well as representatives from the company Nintx, the accelerator Inova Unicamp, and the Sírio-Libanês Hospital.

 Watch the full event:
Morning broadcast
Afternoon broadcast