Interações universidade-empresa em nanotecnologia no Brasil: evidências internacionais, nacionais e institucionais a partir do caso CTNano/UFMG

Abstract

Inserted in Embedded in a knowledge-based economy, research centers affiliated with public universities have gained strategic importance as drivers of technological innovation and industrial development. Despite this potential, the consolidation of Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I) partnerships in Brazil still faces barriers that affect the cooperative environment between scientific institutions and the productive sector. In this context, this dissertation aims to analyze, from a multilevel perspective — international, national, and institutional — the factors that positively or negatively influence the attractiveness of the Center for Technology in Nanomaterials and Graphene at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (CTNano/UFMG) for establishing RD&I partnerships with the business sector. The first level involves the analysis of international data from the Global Innovation Index (GII/WIPO), allowing an assessment of Brazil's position in the global innovation system. The second axis draws on microdata from the Innovation Survey conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (PINTEC/IBGE), focusing on the obstacles and dynamics of Brazilian industrial innovation. The third axis explores technical and administrative documentation from three projects carried out by CTNano/UFMG in partnership with large industrial companies, aiming to identify patterns of management, contractual structure, and technological profile of these collaborations. The results show that Brazil, when compared to other countries, faces significant limitations in pillars such as institutional framework, infrastructure, and human capital, which hinder the formation of collaborative innovation networks. At the national level, a low intensity of cooperation between companies and scientific institutions is observed, especially among smaller organizations. At the institutional level, the projects analyzed revealed mature organizational practices, with well-defined scopes and structured technical deliverables. However, the rigidity of internal procedures and the complexity of coordination with the business sector — particularly with small and medium-sized enterprises — emerge as challenges to expanding these collaborations. It is proposed that, although centers like CTNano/UFMG demonstrate a high degree of technical and organizational maturity, their operation remains embedded in an innovation system that requires greater institutional alignment and more robust public policies to strengthen the country's economic development.