INESC R&D Brazil on the path for consolidation

Relationships with sister country started over a decade and a half

The first projects INESC Porto developed with Brazil go back to 1997. At the time, the relationship was based on individual contacts that many professors and INESC Porto researchers maintained with the Brazilian academy and industry. Moving from that to establishing an R&D institution in that country was a bold move.

As of 2010, the participation in the Brazilian market started being officially coordinated. Around that time, more precisely in July 2011, the Gabinete Brasil (Brazil Office) is established. Coordinated by Mauro Rosa, the Gabinete Brasil works as an interface between INESC TEC and the Brazilian market, and its aim is to boost the cooperation between these two countries, providing fiscal, legal and administrative support, and moderating technology and project transfer between partner institutions.

Registered in the Brazilian Federal Revenue Department since June of last year, INESC R&D Brazil, an institution that was created based on the INESC TEC model, is now gathering universities in its Network in order to transfer technology and to create value in Brazil. The agreements signed, or to be signed soon, with Brazilian universities have already gone up to a dozen.

For Vladimiro Miranda (President of INESC R&D Brazil), Alexandre Rocco (Executive Director) and Mauro Rosa (Director and also coordinator of the Gabinete Brasil at INESC TEC), speeding up the multilateral cooperation in scientific activities is key, as well as promoting the laboratories in Brazil which are part of the INESC Brazil Network, and launching spin-off companies in that country. Benefiting from what has already been done at INESC TEC and considering the specificities of the Brazilian market, the purpose is to combine INESC TEC technology with the local capacity and skills, generating more R&D in the Brazilian and European markets and involving the INESC Brazil Network in this activity.

“The current Brazilian technological cycle already lets us think of putting a project like Trimares, for instance, in an industrial line totally transferred to the Brazilian industry. And what we want, our goal is that one company can be born as a result of this process, a company that will take this technology”, explains the coordinator of the Gabinete Brasil, who identifies spin-off company launching as one of the key objectives.

Greatest obstacles are formal

This model to manage science and technology and research and development in Brazil, which is pioneer in South America, already has some confirmed advantages. Other than the potential for harbouring large multidisciplinary projects and even an internationalisation component, the model benefits from the dimension of INESC TEC, and from its capacity to manage the associated science and technology and the capacity to transfer and value technology in the Associate Laboratory, as well as from the valuable resources that the Brazilian partner universities provide.

Even though the future seems promising, the context of Brazil can also present some “traps”. “The market is complicated and there are similar entities to INESC R&D Brazil there which have a great capacity”, and Brazil is a country that keeps attracting more and more investment.

Even still, the competition brings little concern to the directors as two of them are Brazilian (Alexandre Rocco and Mauro Rosa). Being perceived as a mere “figure head” would not only be profoundly unjust, but would also be negative to the affirmation of Brazilian roots. The objectives of INESC R&D Brazil include creating advanced laboratories in several regions of Brazil, anchored in their local partners and yet generating synergies with the entire network. If this occurs, INESC R&D Brazil will be contributing to a small revolution in Brazil, which has to do with establishing real cooperation actions between universities following the example of EU models.

As a result, INESC R&D Brazil will not be an entity competing with Brazilian universities, but a partner that will be adding value to them. "The Columbus egg of the scheme”, states Vladimiro Miranda, "is a model where it is easy to demonstrate how value can be created to Brazilian universities, to Brazilian industry and to Brazilian objectives. This project is a win-win situation because if the activity of the Brazilian partner increases significantly in quality and quantity, we will all gain as partners".

But of all threats identified, bureaucracy and formal demands are the most worrying as they can hinder projects significantly and that goes beyond generating science. The aim is to take the best of maintaining a connection between universities and industry, in an international interaction. "In that component, Brazil is still very "tangled", and the country needs to take brave steps in order to simplify processes without ideological preconceptions".

Oil, aeronautics and energy are the great investments for this year

Portuguese technology is therefore welcome in a country that is developing and has needs for certain competences. The areas identified as having great potential for cooperation, in which INESC TEC concentrates all its efforts, are oil, aeronautics and energy.

Six projects are currently being developed fundamentally for the power sector. Parafuzzy is a project in the area of real-time network analysis that uses annotated paraconsistent logic to model conditions of uncertainty in charging in unmonitored stations. The University of Santa Cecília (UNISANTA), in São Paulo, is partner, and Eletropaulo is the contracting company. Other project involving the same entities is the SIMULESP, a real-time simulator for decision support.

The TECCON – optical fibre sensors to monitor, control and protect power systems is a project that is being developed by the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). This project was requested by TBE, a set of nine power distribution companies working in the states of Pará, Maranhão, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais.

The TriMARES (an intelligent georeference system to monitor basins using an autonomous vehicle) included an underwater robot which is already on the other side of the Atlantic. Funded by the Lageado consortium (led by the EDP in Brazil), the TriMARES is being developed by INESC TEC in collaboration with the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) in order to create a system to monitor dams, basin sedimentation and water quality.

With the University of São Paulo/São Carlos (USP/SC), a computational system is being developed to coordinate directional relay for mesh transmission systems. The aims is to develop a protection technology to serve the Companhia de Transmissão de Energia Elétrica Paulista – CTEEP (Electric Power Transmission System of São Paulo).

The ONS-PrevParq is in its final stage. This is a support consulting service for the development of a wind power forecasting system. The National Power System Operator (ONS) provides the funding. The Federal University of Pernambuco is involved in this project developing experimental forecasting models which are applicable to Brazil.

In March, INESC R&D Brazil, the CTEEP and the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) will start developing an application technology for power flow at substation level to analyse bus bars.

There is strong hope for cooperation in the oil sector as a result of the workshops conducted in 2012 with Petrobrás (one in Porto and another in Rio de Janeiro). There are different technological challenges, and partnerships set up in Brazil aligning universities and the objective now is to overcome some formal issues so that future projects can receive green light.

Furthermore, since INESC TEC has been collaborating with the ITA (Technological Institute of Aeronautics), the expectation is for that renowned institution to join the INESC Brazil Network, thus strengthening the relationship with Embraer, which also has industrial interest in Portugal.

In this wave of projects, some INESC TEC units are more active than others. Historically, the Power Systems Unit (USE) is one of the most active in their relations with Brazil, together with the Optoelectronics and Electronic Systems Unit (UOSE), as well as the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Unit (ROBIS), which has been continuously increasing their effort. Overall, any INESC TEC Unit fits perfectly with the reality of the sister country, as there is a “greater margin for progression and complementary work in Brazil”, explains Mauro Rosa.

“We need to change the Units’ approach towards the Brazilian market”

The Gabinete Brasil is composed of six elements. With Mauro Rosa as the coordinator, this group includes Paula Faria, who is also the leader of the Fiscal Council of INESC R&D Brazil. Teresa Antunes provides the legal support, Leonardo Bremermann provides support to the management, Vanda Ferreira is in charge of managing projects, Grasiela Almeida is the secretary and Vladimiro Miranda, director of INESC Porto, also collaborates actively with the office.

The Gabinete Brasil is responsible for most market prospection in Brazil, and this is actually one of the weaknesses of the current system. According to Mauro Rosa, it will be necessary to support INESC TEC’s Units so that they can improve their interaction with the Brazilian context and, in his opinions the Units should identify the main needs in Brazil and work with what they have to offer.

“The Gabinete Brasil is at the risk of working as a filter in the process of establishing connections with the Universities and the Brazilian context and we do not have that ambition or capacity. We want to work as a facilitator. We want the Units to be more involved, we want them to understand the market, we want them to prospect the market, using the help of Gabinete Brasil”, explains the coordinator. “It is necessary to create a plan for each Unit related to Brazil and design an approach to the Brazilian context in a coordinated way”, he concludes.

“The philosophy of INESC R&D Brazil has to do with generating activity in Brazil and for Brazil – and we want to give Brazil a window of opportunity to internationalise their academy. For that, we are counting on the research capacity at INESC TEC, INESC R&D Brazil and within the INESC Brazil Network, which includes a large number of Brazilian Universities. In this condition, everybody wins: from INESC TEC to the Brazilian partners and industry. The research at the Associate Laboratory will continue, we will conduct research on the problems we find in Brazil so that we can give them results”, states Mauro Rosa. "It will be a pleasure to contribute to the development of a country with which we share so much of our biological and cultural DNA", concludes Vladimiro Miranda.

*Photo credits: Federal University of Santa Catarina and UNICAMP: Wikipedia