Unicamp signed 86 new agreements of Research and Development (R&D) with the business sector in 2021, which represents more than R$72 million in resources aimed at research. Partnerships stimulate innovation in processes, products and services in the most varied areas and accelerate the transfer of technologies and knowledge developed at the University to the market.
This is the record number of projects in collaboration with companies signed per year by Unicamp since the indicator began to be monitored by Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency in 2016. The data isare not Inova Unicamp Annual Report, body of the University responsible for university-business interaction with a focus on innovation.
A teacher Ana Frattini, executive director of Inova Unicamp, analyzes that the result demonstrates the investment recovery of the business sector in collaborative research with the University, even with the total value still lower than that achieved in years prior to the pandemic.
“After a drop in 2020, the total value of agreements signed demonstrated clear recovery. We haven't gone back to the 2018 and 2019 levels, when the University signed more than R$130 million annually in research with the business sector, but the more than R$72 million signed in 2021 represented an increase of 65% compared to what was closed in 2020”, celebrates Frattini about the results of R&D partnerships with the business sector.
The Annual Report details that 75% of investment in research coming from partnerships with the business sector are resources from tax incentives and benefits, in addition to mandatory clauses, especially in the sectors Brazilian Electric and Oil and Gas.
For Renato Lopes, associate executive director at Inova Unicamp, projects on major strategic themes collaborate to increase the number of R&Ds. “The facilities brought by Unicamp Scientific and Technological Park, under the management of Inova, with dedicated spaces collaborative research and access to talent highly qualified and cutting-edge laboratories at the University are also an element of attracting companies to develop research in partnership with Unicamp”, says Lopes.
Examples of strategic projects are those financed by the federal government's Rota 2030 Program. This program supports the technological development of the Brazilian automotive sector to expand national participation in the gl marketobal. To this end, the Program reduces the import tax on auto parts and Companies deposit 2% of the imported value in R&D projects aimed at new technologies, in partnership with Scientific, Technological and Innovation Institutions (ICTs), such as Unicamp.
Since 2020, they have already been signed at Unicamp 11 R&D agreements within the scope of the Rota Program 2030 in the lines of bioenergy, alternative combustion propulsion, improving vehicle efficiency and safety. They involved the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FEM), Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEEC), Faculty of Agricultural Engineering (FEAGRI) and Faculty of Chemical Engineering (FEQ) at Unicamp, in addition to 13 companies and another 10 ICTs. The total value of the signed agreements is R$44 million, of which R$16 million is an investment for Unicamp.
Information Technology is the sector with the highest number of agreements
According to the executive board of Inova Unicamp, the increase in collaborative agreements signedrepresents them interest in negotiating and strengthening university-company relationships, both by the Unicamp community and by companies, in favor of open innovation in different areas.
Of the agreements signed, the majority are in the area of Information Technology, with 20 projects, followed by the Oil and Gas sector (12 agreements), but with the presence of other different sectors.
Among the partnerships signed in the Information Technology sector is the agreement with Unicamp's daughter company Griaule, graduated in 2005 from Unicamp Technology-Based Business Incubator (Incamp). The company is biometrics market leader and today serves clients in 70 countries, including the United States Department of Defense. Brazilians are also familiar with the technology from Unicamp's daughter company, which helped to consolidate the largest biometric database in the country with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), increasing security against fraud in elections.
For the recently signed research project, coordinated by the professor at Unicamp's Computing Institute (IC), Alexandre Xavier Falcão, Griaule intends to develop image acquisition, processing and analysis techniques for person recognition through machine learning and pattern recognition in different biometric modalities, following nine thematic lines. One of them aims to advance the development of identification by fingerprint fragments and another in the acquisition of biometric signals through contact and non-contact devices, for example.
The relationship between the Griaule and Unicamp are already 20 years old, since the beginning of the company in Incamp programs. Today, the company maintains offices in the USA, Europe and Mexico, but the headquarters continues to be in the Barão Geraldo district in Campinas, close to one of the entrances to the University.
“Unicamp constitutes the main innovation and technology ecosystem in Latin America, in addition to being one of the main universities in the field of computer science. This proximity to an institution of excellence allows us to Hiring high-quality labor and collaborating on technological projects”, explains João Weber, CEO of Griaule, about the long partnership with the University.
These and other innovation and entrepreneurship data are available on the Inova Unicamp Annual Activity Report for 2021. In the same publication, it is also possible to check summaries of technology transfers from Unicamp to the business sector and to other institutions, which totaled 30 licensing, in addition to other results.
Original article published on the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency website.
