University and Industry Linkages in Brazil: Some Preliminary and Descriptive Results

Wilson Suzigan ; Eduardo Albuquerque ; Renato Garcia ; Marcia Rapini

Professor, Geosciences Institute of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil wsuzigan@ige.unicamp.br
Assistant Professor, Center for Development and Regional Planning, National University of Minas Gerais (CEDEPLAR/UFMG), Brazil albuquer@cedeplar.ufmg.br
Assistant Professor, Polytechnic School of University of São Paulo (EPUSP), Brazil renato.garcia@poli.usp.br
Junior Researcher, CEDEPLAR/UFMG, and Ph.D candidate, Federal State of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil msrapini@cedeplar.ufmg.br

JEL Classification: O31, O33, L26

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to exam the patterns of universityindustry linkages in Brazil. To do that, it is presented some preliminary and descriptive results from two main sources, the database from the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), and some descriptive data from the Brazilian university survey. Even with these data was not enough to present and to discuss the pattern, it can show some interactions between university and firms in Brazil, especially the role played by the university in the creation and diffusion of knowledge among firms. The main results show that Brazilian university can play an important role among firms, not only by the rendering of services, which is a way to transfer codified knowledge, but also by the establishment of cooperative research, in which the knowledge involved are more tacit and requires close interaction between universities and firms.

Keywords:

University-industry linkages, Innovation, Brazilian industry

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the whole Brazilian team on the University- Industry Linkages Project research, since this paper is a result from a huge collective research. The authors want to thank the participants of the Conference on “The University Industry Linkages and Economic Performance” (Seoul, South Korea, fev/2009), especially Keun Lee and Yee Kyoung Kim, who provided very useful comments for an early version of this paper. Acknowledgements should be made to the financial support from Fapesp (process no. 2006/58.878-8), CNPq (process no. 478.994/2006-0), Fapemig (process no. CEX-1735/07) and IDRC (“Interactions between universities and firms: searching for paths to support the changing role of universities in Latin America”).

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