This Thursday, Unicamp's Innovation Agency remembers its history and celebrates its anniversary during the 2018 Inventors Award ceremony
As in a puzzle, when rescuing the history of Inova Unicamp, from its conception to the present day, all the pieces seem to fit with what was happening both at the University and in the context of science, technology and innovation in Brazil. An ideal combination that allowed Unicamp's Technological Innovation Center, which celebrates 15 years of existence in 2018, to consolidate itself as a national reference.
“Between the late 1990s and early 2000s, innovation began to enter the strategic policy agenda. Little by little, the importance of these actions actually becoming State policy was discussed. Brazil already had a very strong science and technology system, compared to other countries in Latin America”, explains Maria Beatriz Bonacelli, professor at the DPCT (Department of Scientific and Technological Policy) at Unicamp and also a member of the discussion group created by then rector Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz to develop the model for the Unicamp Innovation Agency.
“In countries like Brazil, universities are a central point in this ecosystem. So, the important weight of validating these activities and how to promote greater university-company interaction fell on us”, adds the professor.
According to professor Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, current scientific director of Fapesp (São Paulo State Research Support Foundation), the subject was discussed for several months and there was important participation from DPCT and also from professor Carlos Américo Pacheco, who At the time, he had just left the executive secretariat of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
“Unicamp was already demonstrating its pioneering spirit by having initiatives linked to these areas even before Inova Unicamp emerged. However, we can say that these actions were very reactive. It was expected, with the creation of the Technological Innovation Center, a more dynamic stance to create this demand in the industry”, says professor Maria Beatriz.
“This does not mean that Unicamp carried out this activity perfectly, but rather that it had been exploring such possibilities for many years, since its foundation. When creating Inova Unicamp, the objective was to raise the level of the university's action in the search for partnerships with society, including government bodies and companies, in activities connected to research carried out at the university”, adds Brito Cruz.
Then, on July 23, 2003, the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency was created, the Technological Innovation Center of the State University of Campinas. Prior to the Innovation Law, which was only enacted in 2004, the structure was based on three main areas: intellectual property, partnerships and agreements, and parks and incubators.
“It is interesting to note that even with the changes seen over the years and the agency's scope of action expanding, these three pillars remain. At the time, we did not imagine having a technology park within the campus, but, in fact, being an agent to promote and support this type of initiative in the State”, recalls the current director of the Scientific and Technological Park at Unicamp, Eduardo Gurgel do Amaral .
Considered a bold project, the Innovation Agency was institutionalized with the possibility of its executive director being a market professional, to understand the business world and facilitate interactions with the University. Agricultural engineer Alberto Duque Portugal, who had presided over Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Company) between May 1995 and January 2003, was then invited to fill the position.
“This was a rupture considering the University’s governance policy. That's why I always reinforce how this Inova Unicamp project was very modern and bold. It was difficult to have an outsider, considering the culture of the University and the entire validation process that the agency was still going through”, comments Gurgel do Amaral.
Portugal was in charge of Inova Unicamp for six months and left the position, according to the work “Unicamp, 50 years – A story of innovation and entrepreneurship”, for personal reasons. Subsequently, professor Roberto Lotufo, coming from FEEC (Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering) at Unicamp, took charge of the NIT.
EXAMPLE TO BE FOLLOWED
As science and technology institutions had to adapt to the new model proposed by the Innovation Law, Inova Unicamp served as a model for this transformation. “We became a reference for them”, recalls Lotufo. “The term 'Innovation Agency' itself indicates this. Many centers adopted this nomenclature”, he reinforces.
Its protagonism was such that, in 2007, InovaNIT was created, a project by Inova Unicamp with financing from Finep (Studies and Projects Financier), to train professionals from science and technology institutions throughout Brazil who were in the process of structuring of its Technological Innovation Centers. Between 2007 and 2012, 49 courses were offered to 965 participants, from 312 different institutions. “This was a great project, one of Inova Unicamp’s greatest contributions”, highlights Maria Beatriz.
Regarding regional collaboration, in 2010, the Innovation Agency was tasked with carrying out a major diagnosis on science and technology in the administrative region of Campinas, which includes 90 municipalities, and which would serve as a basis in the future for the installation of technology parks in the region. . “It was a dense study, which is still taken as a basis and reference today”, says Gurgel do Amaral.
LEARNING FROM GOOD EXAMPLES
International benchmarking has always been a strong aspect of the Innovation Agency, since the time its project was in the gestation process and, mainly, after the creation of the Technological Innovation Center. “MIT, University of California, Columbia University, Cambridge, AUTM, among other renowned international institutions, have always been examples for us. We wanted to understand their practices and create a link with the great innovation centers in the world”, says Lotufo.
Interactions with universities abroad allowed cooperation in projects, encouragement of the University's startups and entrepreneurial initiatives, technical visits and training of professors, researchers and employees.
IMPACT PROJECTS
The creation of good improvement projects in Inova Unicamp's areas of activity was also crucial for the Technological Innovation Center to advance in these areas and contribute more broadly to the ecosystem. “The structuring of intellectual property processes, online invention communication, analysis of the innovation potential of technologies, bringing companies together in collaborative workshops and several other experiences contributed to strengthening Inova. Already fifteen years old, having gone through three other rectory administrations, we have observed that this is a work that only improves and that has its institutional stability”, assesses Lotufo.
INCENTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The fact of having associated with its activities the responsibility for promoting and supporting entrepreneurship made Inova Unicamp assume from the beginning the management of Incamp (Unicamp's Technology-Based Business Incubator), an initiative dating back to 2001, two years before the creation of the agency.
In 2006, the Unicamp Ventures group, an initiative born from Unicamp alumni who became entrepreneurs, seeded the purpose of establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem around the university. Together with the Innovation Agency, several activities were designed and disseminated among members of the community internal and external to Unicamp. Known today as Unicamp's daughter companies, they now have 485 active companies in the market, responsible for employing more than 28 thousand people. Together, they earn more than R$3 billion, according to the latest survey released by Inova. Since 2017, Inova Unicamp has recognized the Entrepreneur of the Year, during the Unicamp Ventures Meeting.
In 2011, the Innovation Agency launched the Unicamp Technological Innovation Challenge, a business model competition for the university's patents and software. “This is the Innovation Agency’s most integrative project. Because it is work aimed at students, which integrates inventors, companies, mentors and encourages the formation of companies. All of Inova’s responsibilities are combined”, says Lotufo.
Lotufo remained at the helm of Inova Unicamp until 2013, when Professor Milton Mori, from FEQ (Faculty of Chemical Engineering) at Unicamp, took over as executive director. In 2014, the Inova Jovem Program was launched, an entrepreneurship competition initially aimed at Unicamp's technical colleges: Cotuca and Cotil. Years later, the competition was also open to regular high school students and has participants from all over Brazil. “It was important to also include technical colleges and then other schools to work on entrepreneurship from an early age”, says Mori.
OPEN DOOR PARK
Still under the management of Professor Milton Mori, the Scientific and Technological Park revised its deliberation, allowing startups to enter from 2016 onwards. Until then, only companies that had R&D projects with Unicamp could set up shop in the area. “We noticed this interest in startups, especially those that completed the incubation process at Incamp and did not want to move away from the fields. The proof of this was that we filled the Vertex the way it was. In a short time, all spaces were full. Such an action is beneficial for companies and Unicamp. There are more people collaborating with the ecosystem, establishing partnerships and interacting with the university”, says Mori.
“It was a very timely and assertive decision. The presence of startups in the Scientific and Technological Park helps in the development of these companies and their insertion into the ecosystem”, adds Gurgel do Amaral.
FOCUS ON THE STATE OF SAO PAULO
One of the Innovation Agency's hallmarks is that it has never stopped cooperating and sharing its expertise. In 2013, the Inova Capacita Project was approved by CNPq, worth R$ 1,3 million, to support the implementation and training of Technological Innovation Centers in the State of São Paulo. The project flourished within the scope of Rede Inova São Paulo, which at the time was coordinated by professor Milton Mori. Today, it is under the command of Professor Newton Frateschi, current executive director of the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency, who took over in 2017, coming from the university's Institute of Physics.
Within the scope of the Inova São Paulo Network and the Inova Capacita project, more than 346 NIT professionals were trained, 21 advanced face-to-face courses were carried out, six EAD courses were available on the online platform – which have already trained over 4,1 thousand people –, six seminars on good legal practices carried out, a guide to good legal practices with more than 500 downloads on the website, a book on NIT management with over 1,6 thousand hits also on the website, and the development of a competence platform, involving the 37 Science and Technology Institutions, from the Inova São Paulo Network.
“This project was a true success, because it demonstrates the evolution of NITs in the State of São Paulo. Every action in this project is a very important achievement for all of us”, says the person responsible for the project, professor Milton Mori.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Bringing with it successful projects, but also several lessons learned and challenges to be overcome, Inova Unicamp remains firm in its mission to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, with a view to cooperating with the ecosystem and, mainly, with society .
“Inova Unicamp departs from the traditional governance structure of the University, I would say that it is like a startup – a spin-off, more precisely – that is committed to the most efficient ways of promoting entrepreneurship and ensuring the protection and transfer of technologies developed at Unicamp, which is a cutting-edge university, for the benefit of society”, assesses the current executive director of Inova Unicamp, Newton Frateschi.
With the New Legal Framework for Science, Technology and Innovation, new frontiers are being discovered, such as the possibility of the university taking part in start-up companies within the scope of Unicamp. There is also a need to create an endowment for the university.
“This all involves the Innovation Agency and increases the scope of the activities we already carry out. It is also worth remembering that, in the New CT&I Legal Framework, all research agreements must necessarily go through the Innovation Agency. This guarantees the best practices and the best results for everyone”, says the executive director.
With a view to the future and already being implemented in the present, Frateschi's goal is to establish sustainable forms of governance for Inova, ensure the dissemination of its mission to the internal community and seek leadership in relations with the ecosystem.
The goal is also to establish the Unicamp Scientific and Technological Park as a place where the University, in cooperation with companies and startups, promotes economic and sustainable development. It also seeks to bring the Limeira and Piracicaba campuses closer together, as well as the PRP (Dean of Research).
In the case of PRP, to identify potential projects within the University that can generate new technologies, become spin-off companies, created from research at the university, and additionally, assist in the sustainability of the units' laboratories, through partnerships for use of the University's machinery by nascent or already established companies.
For Frateschi, in the future perspective, one of the priorities is to find new ways to encourage technology-based entrepreneurship and also look at a new frontier: social entrepreneurship. In all cases, the executive director intends to apply evaluation metrics to guide next steps.
“Inova Unicamp managed to create its own identity, which it established itself. Everyone sees how important it is. A solid structure, which is not subject to waves, fads or political issues. The Inova has a ballast that is impressive. And we can build much more. This is the challenge we face”, concludes Frateschi.
