Unicamp took, last Friday (23), an important step towards the construction and validation with society of what will be carried out at Fazenda Argentina in the coming years. Promoted by Unicamp's Executive Directorate of Integrated Planning (Depi), a workshop organized by the companies Inventta, Protobox and Jumpers brought together representatives from the business sector, research centers, universities, development institutions, civil and governmental entities to create the concept of future International Hub for Sustainable Development (HIDS), a project proposed to occupy the area acquired by Unicamp.
The word “hub” refers in technological language to a central piece, which receives the signals transmitted by the stations and retransmits them to all the others. In the case of physical spaces, hubs are characterized by a suitable place for professionals to interact and, consequently, create, undertake and work together. According to Depi's executive director, Marco Aurélio Lima, the connections proposed in the workshop are extremely important for the concept of the HIDS project, which aims to be a collective construction. “We call it a hub because Unicamp doesn’t just want to be the owner of the initiative. The hub concept includes the participation of society to promote sustainable development. In this sense, this workshop is an exercise with businesspeople and other actors to understand what they are looking for and what we need, to be successful in a place to attract diverse partners, although, obviously, with a lot of protagonism from Unicamp”, he stated.
The dean of Unicamp, Marcelo Knobel, opened the workshop highlighting that one of the motivators of HIDS is to seek to meet and encourage UN agenda with 18 sustainable development goals, a commitment signed by more than 150 countries. “With the HIDS project, Unicamp is also committed to promoting sustainability in a space that encourages innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship”, commented Knobel.
The project is already being valued by government institutions, who have good expectations about the opportunities and solutions that will emerge. For Carlos Passos, from the Secretariat of Economic, Social and Tourism Development of the Municipality of Campinas, Unicamp already has a natural protagonism, but the participation of several actors in the elaboration and conception of HIDS will bring them closer to the University. and work together on societal challenges. “This union of efforts will materialize in the consolidation of HIDS and that is what matters for Campinas, the union of actors”, he assessed.
Among the promoters in action for the success of HIDS is the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp), an entity that commissioned a legal, institutional and financial modeling study in order to really “get the complex enterprise off its feet.” long term. “Fapesp took the decision to support studies to make two large projects viable in the state: Unicamp's Argentine Farm, in Campinas, and the Ceagesp area in the city of São Paulo. We call these two innovation districts that we hope will be places with a strong emphasis on partnerships between universities, companies, institutions, startups, etc. These are two projects that are capable of taking a leap forward in the positioning of São Paulo, from a local point of view, as a place where quality research is carried out and innovation technologies, startups and companies are developed”, explained the CEO of Fapesp, Carlos Américo Pacheco, who was also present at the workshop.
With this focus, one of the rectory's first actions towards the formation of HIDS was to transfer the headquarters of Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency for Fazenda Argentina, as a stimulus for partnerships with the business sector and entrepreneurship. For the executive director of Inova Unicamp, Newton Frateschi, these partnerships will be essential for making HIDS viable. “Unicamp will continue to focus on its mission of training the best talents, but HIDS will also allow us to populate this space with transformative initiatives that will impact sustainable and innovative solutions to achieve not only day-to-day business life, but also global issues of socioeconomic development”, assessed Frateschi.
Depi's executive director commented that after the workshop, the idea is to do a master plan, not only for Fazenda Argentina, but for a sustainable neighborhood around the Fazenda, the area known as Ciatec II. “That’s a really good goal. Imagine the meaning of inserting and integrating a university like ours with the city through a smart neighborhood, a sustainable neighborhood,” she noted. “Planning this is the next step and, obviously, the information we received in this workshop and from other interactions with Unicamp's internal and external community will be fundamental to the success of the Hub. The project will only work if the university community takes ownership of it. We have already started sectoral conversations with our community and we will intensify this to create the guidelines for this master plan”, he concluded
