| Brazilian science and technology has achieved in the last decades a significant position in the international
arena.
Organization
Brazil has a well developed organization of science and technology, which is considered the best and largest in Latin America.
Basic research is largely carried out in public universities and research
centers and institutes, and some in private institutions, particularly in non-profit non-governmental organizations. Thanks to
governmental regulations and incentives, however, since the 1990s is has been growing in
the private universities and companies, as well. Accordingly, more than 90% of funding for basic research comes from the
governmental sources.
Applied research, technology and engineering is also largely carried out in the university and research centers system,
contrary-wise to more developed countries such as the United States,
South Korea, Germany, Japan, etc. The reasons for these are many, but the main ones are: 1) Few Brazilian private
companies are competitive and rich enough for having their own R&D&I, they usually develop products by means of
technology transfer from other companies, usually foreign ones; 2) The high-technology private sector in Brazil is dominated by
large multinational companies, which usually have their R&D&I centers overseas, and, with a few exceptions, do not invest
in their Brazilian branches. However, there is a significant trend reversing this now. Companies such as Motorola, Samsung, Nokia
and IBM have established large R&D&I centers in Brazil, starting with IBM, which had
established an IBM
Research Center in Brazil since the 1970s. One of the incentive factors for this, besides the relatively lower cost and high
sophistication and skills of Brazilian technical manpower, has been the so-called Informatics Law, which exempts from certain
taxes up to 5% of the gross revenue of high technology manufacturing companies in the fields of telecommunications, computers, digital electronics, etc. The Law has attracted annually more than 1,5 billion dollars of investment in
Brazilian R&D&I. Multinational companies have also discovered that some products and technologies designed and developed
by Brazilians have a nice competitivity and are appreciated by other countries, such as automobiles, aircraft, software, fiber optics, electric appliances, and so
on.
Funding
Brazilian funding for research, development and innovation comes from six main sources:
- Government (federal, state and municipal) sources. There are a number of state organizations which were created mostly in the
1950s specifically for directly promoting and funding R&D&I, such as the National
Research Council (CNPq), which is now named Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento and the National Agency for
Financing Studies and Researches (FINEP), both a part of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT). MCT is a relatively novel
ministry, having being created in 1990. Before this, CNPq was the only research granting
institution at federal level, working directly under the Presidency of Republic. At state level, almost all states have founded
their own public foundations for support of R&D&I, following the pioneering (and highly successful) example of São Paulo state, which created FAPESP in 1962. Usually these
foundations are guaranteed by changes in the state constitituions, along the 1980s and 1990s.
- Indirect funding through the budgets of public and private universities, institutes and centers. Some universities, such as
UNICAMP, have their own internal agencies, foundations and funds set apart and
managed with the purpose of supporting R&D&I by their faculties and students.
- Public companies, such as Embrapa
(Brazilian Enterprise for Agricultural Research). Their source of revenue are the government itself (via budgetary allocations my
ministries and state secretaries) and investment of a part of products and services sold.
- Industrial, commercial and services private companies, usually for their own R&D&I centers, or via some fiscal
benefit (tax exemption laws), such as the Informatics Law.
- National private and non-for-profit associations and foundations, via statutory mechanisms or donations by private
individuals or companies. An example is the Banco do Brasil Foundation
- Funding by other nations, international organizations and multilateral institutions, such as Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, World
Bank, UNESCO, PNUD, World Health Organization,
World
Wildlife Foundation, Kellog's Foundation, Melissa and Bill Gates Foundation, US National Science Foundation, Volkswagen Foundation,
just to name a few of the more important ones in the history of Brazilian science and technology.
Timeline
- 1916: Creation of the Brazilian Society of Sciences, later Brazilian Academy of Sciences
- 1917: Beginning of the publication of the Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
- 1920: Foundation of the University of Brazil, current Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
- 1923: Creation of the Brazilian
Society of Chemistry (SBCh)
- 1923: Foundation of the Radio Society, first radio broadcasting station of Brazil
- 1924: Creation of the Brazilian Association of Education
- 1925: Institution of the Einstein Prize, in reason of his visit to Brazil
- 1930: Creation of the National Institute of Weights and Standards
- 1934: Creation of the University of São Paulo
- 1935: Creation of the University of the Federal District
- 1948: Creation of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC)
- 1949: Creation of the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF)
- 1951: Creation of the National Research Council (CNPq)
- 1952: Creation of the National Institute for Amazon Research - INPA
- 1956: Creation of the National Commission of Nuclear Energy - CNEN
- 1961: Creation of the National Institute of Space Research - INPE
- 1962: Creation of the São Paulo State Foundation for Research Support (FAPESP)
- 1967: Creation of FINEP (National Agency for Financing Research and Projects)
Important universities
Research institutes
Scientific societies
Important Brazilian scientists and technologists
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