Unicamp's Faculty of Chemical Engineering (FEQ) was approved for accreditation as a unit of the Brazilian Industrial Research and Innovation Company (Embrapii), a social organization linked to the Federal Government's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The final result of the process was announced this Friday (20) at Embrapii website.
FEQ is among the four approved institutions in São Paulo, alongside the University of São Paulo and Embrapa Instrumentação, in the call that took place in October 2022 and whose partial result was released at the end of last year. The other research centers selected are the Federal University of Pernambuco (FITPEG) and Senai DR, from Recife (PE), the State University of Paraíba (NUTES), from Campina Grande (PB), Senai DR, from Maringá (PR ) and the Foundation for Technological Innovations (FITec), from Belo Horizonte (MG).
The Embrapii unit in renewable energy was named E-RENOVA and will be directed by professor and FEQ professor Rubens Maciel Filho. The new competence center will feature the participation of a team of faculty, staff, researchers and students from the Faculty with different expertise, from the Unicamp Development Foundation (Funcamp) and the Unicamp Innovation Agency (Inova Unicamp).
“Being approved as an EMBRAPII unit is an achievement and further recognition for FEQ. We are already a reference in the area of energy and products from renewable sources and, now, we are expanding our commitment to society to develop technology-based solutions that meet sustainability criteria, based on partnerships with the industrial sector”, said Rubens Maciel Filho, professor at Unicamp and coordinator of the new Embrapii unit.
Competence Center
E-RENOVA's studies will focus on new processes and products in renewable energy, biofuel production and biomass processing, from agro-industrial waste, including sugar cane, corn and forestry, generated by the paper and cellulose, for example. This is the second Embrapii unit based at Unicamp — the other is linked to the Unicamp Medicinal Chemistry Center (CQMED), in the area of pharmaceutical innovation, in operation since 2017.
According to Leonardo Fregolente, associate director of FEQ, the accreditation will boost fundraising and enhance Unicamp's capacity for cooperation with companies in the sector in experimental research and modeling and simulation.
“FEQ accreditation will certainly provide an ecosystem of innovation and technology development, and this synergy will contribute to advances in the technical and economic maturity of industrial processes, generation of intellectual property, training of specialized human resources, in addition to the consolidation of new areas of research”, said the professor and researcher.
Embrapii supports partnerships between companies and public and private research institutions, in selected areas of competence, to carry out technological research development projects for innovation. With FEQ and the other 8 units from this last call, Embrapii has a set of 94 accredited units.
"Inova Unicamp supported the prospecting of partners for the preparation of the proposal and will act to protect the intellectual property generated, in the negotiation and formatting phases of agreements for the transfer of knowledge generated with the research developed at E-RENOVA, in addition to continue to mediate contact between researchers and companies interested in establishing partnerships with the university", explained Ana Frattini, executive director of the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency.
Investments in innovation
Upon accreditation, the Embrapii unit of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering at Unicamp will be able to receive financial resources from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) to prospect and execute Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) projects, in partnership with industrial companies, for research aimed at sustainable development.
The investment in E-RENOVA will be non-refundable. From there, the expectation is to at least double the contribution to innovation. The model adds the financial contribution of industrial companies and the non-financial resources of accredited units. At Unicamp, the resources that will be invested include physical infrastructure, equipment, researchers' salaries and grants to encourage research.
“We will provide full support to researchers in interacting with industry. We are already talking to established companies to structure long-term relationships focused on encouraging research in partnership and that also encourage the creation of companies spin off, based on the technologies that will be developed at E-RENOVA”, commented Iara Ferreira, Business and Innovation coordinator at Inova Unicamp.
The market to be served by the projects is mainly made up of companies in the sugar-corn-energy, industrial biotechnology, forestry, oil-gas and renewable products and energy sectors. Companies such as Raízen, Suzano, Evonik, Braskem and Amyris have already signaled their intention to sign research cooperation agreements with Unicamp's new Embrapii unit.
“Brazil has a very large potential for using biomass to produce fuels, especially high energy density fuels. Our goal is to strengthen the university-company partnerships that already exist with Unicamp and attract new partners, transforming FEQ into a national technological development hub for biofuels", concludes Fregolente.
Article originally published on the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency website.
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