Promoting synergy between research groups at Unicamp's Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and numerous companies and NGOs linked to the bieconomy is the focus of the 1st Feagri Innovation Workshop (WI-Feagri) taking place on July 4th and 5th. The organizers already have the confirmed presence of 50 companies, all of them boasting gross operating revenue above R$100 million. “This first day was a presentation by Feagri professors of their lines of research, as well as funding agencies: Fapesp, BNDES, Finep and Funcamp”, explains professor Daniel Albiero, organizer of the event that was honored by the rector Marcelo Knobel.
According to Albiero, D-day will be this Friday, with the Matchmaking, a business methodology through quick meetings (15 minutes) between Unicamp researchers and company leaders. “21 professors from all departments at Feagri are involved, who sent, in advance, documents describing their potential to resolve companies' problems. Now the parties will sit down for the Matchmaking, which is literally dating to identify mutual interests.”
The Feagri professor clarifies that these quick meetings end with the scheduling of a next meeting to effectively negotiate a partnership, presenting interests and counterparts. “The objective of Matchmaking it is only necessary to check whether a synergy emerges, there is no expectation of agreements. The success of this type of event is measured by the number of meetings scheduled. The idea is to break a paradigm, as the approach between academia and the private sector normally begins with the professor presenting his research; here we have the opposite movement, first listening to the companies’ demands, and then evaluating whether we can solve their problems.”
Among the participating companies, informs Daniel Albiero, there are at least seven in the field of agricultural machinery, two in fertilizers, several in bioenergy, others in rural sanitation and logistics, as well as American and German multinationals focused on the issue of sustainability. “Large investment groups will also come seeking interested parties in partnerships with professors who work in agricultural economics, commodities and business management. Three companies even skipped the Matchmaking and meetings have already been scheduled to discuss partnerships, based on the releases that our researchers had sent by email.”
