More than developing a new technology that can be patented and waiting for its concession by INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property), researchers at Unicamp (State University of Campinas) have awakened to a new opportunity within their projects: entrepreneurship.
Despite the challenging journey that entrepreneurship proposes, it was along this path that teachers and students have found opportunities to take – in some cases, even faster – technologies to the market.
Known as spin-offs – startups created from technologies born at the university – these companies can arise from licensing the technology to a third party who wants to start a new business based on that patent or software, or from the direct interest of the professor or student linked to the project to open a company and undertake.
In 2019 alone, there were five spin-offs created at Unicamp, four of which involved one or more members of the research group responsible for developing the technology. The companies are: Br Hialuronic, Sugarzyme, Cognita Technology and CND Pharma. The initiative earned the entrepreneurial researchers recognition in the 2020 Inventors Award.
Strengthening entrepreneurial culture
In the view of Professor Newton Frateschi, executive director of the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency, this movement indicates a maturation of the university's ecosystem by observing and exploring new opportunities. “Having a giant portfolio of technologies does not necessarily mean that we are fulfilling our role in Brazilian innovation”, he highlights.
In line with this context, Inova Unicamp developed a new methodology to identify more spin-offs at the university. Today, more than communicating his invention, the researcher must reflect on the opportunities that exist for that registration, which could be an R&D project to evolve in the research phases, a licensing so that a company or interested party has permission to use it for specific purposes. commercial activities or entrepreneurship itself. “This way, we have a broader view of the entire innovative process”, reinforces the executive director.
Read article in full published on the Innovation Agency website.
