A pioneering initiative was born in 2004, one year after the creation of the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency, to honor Unicamp's inventors. It was the Inventors Award, a measure that, in principle, awarded nine professors from the University who participated in the development of licensed technologies in 2003. Fifteen years have passed since the first edition and, today, Inova Unicamp records a significant increase in award winners, in addition to expand award categories. In this edition, the awards ceremony was held on June 27th, at Portal Girassol.
A total of 213 professionals – including teachers, researchers, students, alumni – were included in this edition of the event, in the following categories: “Technology Absorbed by the Market”, “Licensed Technology”, “Patent Granted” and “Technology Licensing for Spin-Off creation.” In addition, two teaching and research units at the University were honored.
In the “Outstanding Unit in Intellectual Property Protection” category, the winner was the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA). Of the total of 72 patent applications made in 2018, the FEA was responsible for 18 of them. In the “Outstanding Unit in Technology Transfer” category, the champion was the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEEC), with four licensed technologies, out of a total of 22 licensing contracts signed in 2018.
“The Inventores Award is deserved recognition for Unicamp researchers who develop innovative ideas, which have a strong potential to be transformed into products or processes that will be directly applied in our daily lives. It is a characteristic of Unicamp to encourage innovation and, therefore, this award is so valued at the University”, highlights the rector of Unicamp, professor Marcelo Knobel.
“The Unicamp Inventors Award values one of the important academic activities that is the creation of knowledge and its application. Alongside other Unicamp initiatives that value activity in teaching and basic research, this award, by recognizing the efforts of teachers, students and technicians in creating ideas and their protection through intellectual property instruments, stimulates the growth of the IP collection of the University and increases the potential for benefits, including material ones, to inventors”, corroborates Professor Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, scientific director of the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp) and winner in the “Patent Granted” category.
One of the new features for 2019 is, precisely, the inclusion of the “Licensed technology for creating a spin-off” category, which awarded Ursula Luana Rochetto Doubeck, from the startup CleAir. She, in addition to being one of the inventors of the patent, licensed the technology developed at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering (FEQ) to create her company, which is in the incubation phase at Unicamp's Technology-Based Business Incubator (Incamp). The expectation is that a product aimed at air purification, based on this licensing, will be launched in 2020.
The executive director of Inova Unicamp, professor Newton Fratesc, says that the creation of this new category occurred because, by encouraging the creation of new companies, it is possible to take the knowledge generated at Unicamp to society. He also highlights the highly favorable environment for entrepreneurship found at the University. “Students leave here with a great desire to transform the world. One way of transferring knowledge from the University is through technology transfer. But it is very important for us to show that it is not enough to just license the technology, we have to enable new products and processes to actually reach the market”, he comments.
For Knobel, the path of innovation adopted by Unicamp, which includes everything from protecting intellectual property to licensing and using technology in the market, is an efficient method for taking the University's knowledge to society. “The patented technologies that are later licensed generate benefits for the users of these technologies, in addition to resources for society, which return to the University as well. This is not the only way the University returns to society, but it is a way that has become significant in the context of Unicamp, thanks to our dedicated inventors and Inova”, she points out.
Frateschi believes that the environment of homage to inventors, made possible by the initiative, is essential to show the importance of the innovation and entrepreneurship activities carried out by them, as a form of gratitude for all the effort in providing society with impactful technologies. “It is important for us to value their work, which is very focused on creating new technologies, which can become new products and services, in addition to the creation of new companies. The award also shows that there is an effort to strengthen our innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem”, he highlights.
In 2019, the Inventores Award was sponsored by Novartis, Clarke&Modet, Kasznar Leonardos, Matera and FM2S.
