Abstract
After a decade of the renewal of Brazil’s S&T policy, is it possible to make a first assessment of the progress made and its impacts? Is it legitimate to assume that in the last decade, the implemented interventions in the innovation system were an appropriate response to the crisis, limiting the decline in GDP to 0.6 % in 2009? Would that mean that Brazil was able to establish solid foundations for a knowledge economy? Are there new challenges to be faced? In the context of this global crisis, can the Brazilian economy keep growing without incorporating new knowledge in various sectors of the economy? First, what is the country’s ability to maintain a high rate of growth and face international competition with an economy based on exporting commodities, heavily dependent on demand from China? Second, is it possible to be a knowledge-based economy with industrial firms that do not develop radical innovations? Third, how can a nation deal with the need to promote new technological solutions that also meet the demands of environmental protection? This chapter presents some of the Brazilian government’s responses. These responses lead to a reformulation of S&T policies, an increase in the capacity to generate knowledge. The changes aim for a more dynamic innovation system and to ensure that firms are more capable of facing the global economic crisis.
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Notes
- 1.
China’s investment in R&D in relation to its GDP is now approximately 40 % higher than Brazil’s.
- 2.
- 3.
The first Sector Funds (Oil and Natural Gas was set up in 1998, and Information Technology, Mineral Resources, Electricity, Water, and Aerospace created in 2001) were financed by funds from the sectors themselves and were used to invest in those sectors.
- 4.
- 5.
Created in 2001, the name symbolically refers to the green and yellow of the Brazilian flag.
- 6.
According to IBGE (2013) there were 101 million employed and 6.5 million unemployed in Brazil between 2011 and 2012.
- 7.
- 8.
According to data from IBGE (PNAD 2010), Brazil had a population of 24 million aged between 18 and 24 in 2010.
- 9.
These are mostly public universities located in the south and southeast of the country.
- 10.
According to FINEP, 1,380 emerging firms were selected to receive financial and management support.
- 11.
Until recently, Brazilian companies appear to have been unaware of the possible benefits of intellectual property rights.
- 12.
According to the Innovation Law of 2004.
- 13.
The MCTI should check the compliance of this clause in the Innovation Law via information provided by universities and research institutes.
- 14.
An example is the State University of Campinas or the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
- 15.
These activities require not only legal knowledge (negotiating agreements, contracts) and administrative expertize (general organization of the NIT), but also skills in technology areas such as chemistry, biology, and engineering, which are all essential to address issues of technology and patents.
- 16.
The support of the Technological Development in National Firms (ADTEN) program, which ran between 1996 and 2003, benefited only 0.07 % of Brazilian industrial firms. The loaned funds accounted for between 1.6 % and 3.0 % of the benefited firms’ spending on R&D (de Negri et al. 2008).
- 17.
In previous decades, traditional S&T policies have paid little attention to the innovation process, because of (a) the lack of research on the nature and intensity of innovation activities of firms, and (b) the priority given to scientific research conducted in universities.
- 18.
PRIME: Program for New Innovative Firms.
- 19.
Federal institutions such as the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Funding Authority for Studies and Projects (FINEP), and the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) are primarily responsible for the decision making and governance of the ST&I system. Only the state of São Paulo, because of its historical background and strong local industrial base, was able to create an autonomous system, although it is part of and funded by the federal system.
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We would like to thank CAPES/MEC for financial support for this work.
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Maculan, AM. (2016). Towards a Knowledge-Based Economy in Brazil. In: Horta, H., Heitor, M., Salmi, J. (eds) Trends and Challenges in Science and Higher Education. Knowledge Studies in Higher Education, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20964-7_3
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