INCOBRA - Increasing International Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation between Brazil and the European Union

The INCOBRA consortium carried out a study, resulted from a research with Brazilian entities of science, technology and innovation (ST&I), to evaluate the levels of international collaboration between Brazil and the European Union (EU) in this sector. The objective of this study is to improve cooperation in research and innovation (R&I) activities between regions and overcome the obstacles that prevent a more active participation of Brazilian actors in the European S&I programmes, especially Horizon 2020.

According to the survey, 74% of the institutions interviewed answered "no" to the question: "Have you ever participated in any bilateral call that supports the collaboration between Brazil and a European country?". In addition, almost 90% of the respondents answered that they had never presented any project to programmes like Horizon 2020 and only 10% of Brazilian institutions presented a project in partnership with the European Union.

The study concluded that among the Brazilian organizations participating to the survey that submitted ST&I projects, only few confirmed submitting projects to bilateral programmes between Brazil and a European Member State. When it comes to more prominent EU programmes, such as Horizon 2020, the share of participation is even lower. "Thus, among the institutions investigated, it can be concluded that there is a low rate of participation of ST&I Brazilian actors within these programmes."

The survey covered a wide range of issues, including barriers and difficulties related to the preparation and submission of proposals and measures that could potentially increase the participation of Brazilian organizations. According to the study, "the data demonstrates a clear need for awareness-raising campaigns to inform Brazilian organizations about the partnership opportunities that European Union projects represent."

The research also pointed out that the current state of organizational support in the implementation of EU projects with Brazil is already a "bottleneck" for future collaborations. In this regard, INCOBRA highlights that it is positioned to help organizations create support networks for international projects. "Through the support of bilateral R&I networks, it is aimed to enable participants to find appropriate partners and mentors who can help each other in overcoming challenges."

The data used for the analysis came from a survey developed by the INCOBRA team, based on the organizations that presented proposals within the Brazilian national programmes to support ST&I between 2007-2016. Around 1.788 Brazilian institutions received an online invitation in June 2016. From the total, 1,532 are small, medium or large companies, and 256 are universities and public / private research centres.

About INCOBRA

INCOBRA consortium is made up of 14 institutions - seven in Europe and seven in Brazil. The project is funded by Horizon 2020, an initiative of the European Union whose objective is to finance research and innovation projects by 2020. Coordinated by Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI), the project seeks to build a structure capable of facilitating interaction between Brazilian and European R&I entities.

In order to guarantee success in its objectives and the effective impact of its activities, INCOBRA has a group of stakeholders formed by different type of organisations such as companies, science and technology institutions (ICTs) and universities. Members of this group are informed first-hand about news and event information in Brazil and Europe, as well as have access to a matchmaking tool.