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

On July 6^th, the INCOBRA international consortium held in Enghien-les-Bains, in France, the European edition of the “Brokerage Event”, where more than 40 bilateral business meetings took place over two hours between approximately 14 SMEs from the European Union (EU) and Brazil.

In order to increase the number of participants and international cooperation opportunities in science, technology and innovation (ST&I), the consortium will hold now the Brazilian edition of the event, from October 31^st to November 1^st, in Belo Horizonte (MG). 

The prospect for this edition is to have around 30 participants that will attend the meetings organized in the event and have access to bilateral collaboration opportunities. INCOBRA will support Brazilian and European SMEs interested in exploring potential cooperation opportunities, by giving limited travel vouchers that will allow their participation in the INCOBRA event and the ANPEI Congress. For this purpose, in the beginning of August it was launched a call for expressions of interest: /object/event/421/attach/0_BR_Brokerage_Event_-_Call_for_Travel_Vouchers.pdf

According to Chiara Davalli, project manager from the EBN network – INCOBRA’s responsible partner for organizing the European edition of the “Brokerage Event” - all companies that were part of last edition’s meetings reported at least one significant contact with a potential business partner.

“[The meeting] allowed to track down new cooperation opportunities and to explore new markets in EU and Brazil. Some participants took this opportunity to establish contacts with incubators and intermediates from other countries, to start exploring new contexts and preparing to take their businesses to higher levels”, informed Davalli.

As the manager mentioned, the opportunity to validate their commercial models with other companies and incubators from other countries, with potential new markets, was one of the most valued parts by the participants. “We received positive feedback from participants. The companies that took part in the meetings were small and active in the IoT area, specially handling smart cities, e-health and heritage.”

The Brazilian edition of the “Brokerage Event” will be held during the 16^th ANPEI Conference on Innovation. The event will have as focal point the areas of advanced manufacturing and nanomaterials.

Public call

The public call released by INCOBRA will support a total of 20 beneficiaries, 10 Brazilian and 10 European. The call for expression of interest for the Brazilian edition of INCOBRA’s Brokerage Event is open for all innovation players, from companies and entrepreneurs to Technology Parks and business incubators.

Brazilians could be reimbursed with up to 400 euros each to support their travel expenses, whereas the Europeans could be reimbursed with up to 1400 euros each for travel costs. The deadline is 29th September.

On the other hand, the beneficiaries need to participate in the presentation of INCOBRA´s cooperation scenarios that will that will take place in the conference, execute a minimum of five meetings during the Brokerage Event, participate in the plenary session about the Horizon 2020 program, and complete an activity and expenses report to obtain the reimbursement.

Within the participation requirements, the applicants need to have proven experience in international partnerships. The call’s target publics are companies and players that work directly with ST&I and are involved in developing high impact innovation of products and services in the cross sector of advanced manufacturing and nanomaterials. They should also demonstrate interest in establishing bilateral cooperation projects between Brazil and EU.

(ABIPTI Agency)