Newsletter CISB n.12 | January 2013
TWO PERSPECTIVES
How important is the cooperation between Brazil and Sweden in the Science Without Borders program?
Klaus Capelle,
vice-dean of research at UFABC "One of the main challenges Brazil currently faces is the integration between academic research and the productive sector’s needs. Sweden, on the other hand, has been successful with that blend. That’s why Swedish experience could be very useful to Brazil. The federal government’s initiative with the Science Without Borders aims to fulfill that gap, once exchanges won’t be limited to the academic universe. In the case of Swedish scholarships, there is a real possibility of working in Swedish companies ."
Magnus Ahlström, director for innovation and business development at Saab AB "Innovation in practice comes down to long-term relationship between researchers, product development staff and businessmen developing new solutions to challenges of the society. By performing joint R&D projects in the SwB program between Saab, Swedish Universities and Brazilian Universities/ Institutes Saab taps its understanding of customers and industrial challenges into a strong knowledge capacity leading to new solutions and industrial products for global marketplace. Saab view the visits of Brazilian researchers to Sweden under the SwB program as springboards to develop more and larger long-term joint R&D activities."
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SUITE
Cisb and Saab offer 20 scholarships for the Science without Borders program
Second call includes new interest areas and contemplates PhD and post-doctorate researchers
Cisb and Saab have released a second call for scholarships to study in Sweden via the Science without Borders program. In partnership with CNPq, 20 scholarships are being offered in the modalities of “PhD sandwich” (five) and post-doctorate (fifteen). Applications can be submitted until 28th of March.
In this call, two new areas of interest will be contemplated: Energy & Environment and Attractive & Sustainable Cities. Likewise, Aerospace and Defense & Security will be available for a second time. Candidates can also count with the collaborative platform developed by Saab and Cisb, on which it is possible to interact with other Brazilian researchers and professors of the foreign universities. Thus, it is possible to enrich the proposals and projects before submitting them for analysis and selection.
In addition to Saab and the universities already contemplated in the first call (Chalmers Institute of Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Linkoping University, University of Pretoria, in South Africa, and the George Mason Institute, in the U.S.), also participate in this call Lulea University of Technology and Blekinge Institute of Technology.
The main advantage associated with those scholarships is the work environment researches encounter in Sweden, which focuses in open innovation practices. For researcher Emilia Villani, this is a very distinctive characteristic of the Swedish work model: “One of the strong points of the research carried out here in Sweden is its direct relationship with the industry’s problems. Many projects are developed in partnership, sometimes involving more than one company and with both public and private funding”, she says. “It seems that, compared to Brazil, companies here work with a larger time frame – they invest now to tackle problems that will only become critical in 10 years”.
In addition, Saab supplements the scholarship offered by CNPq, doubling its total monthly benefit. For researcher Leonardo Oliveira, that factor has a very relevant impact in the daily life of the exchange researcher, especially when living in Sweden, where the cost of living is high. “Any professor of any top level institution feels the need of doing a post-doctorate and keeps looking for good opportunities. CISB and Saab’s first call came in an appropriate moment in my career, with openings in the areas of Defense, which I work with, and in a renowned place, which is Sweden. The value of the scholarship was another advantage and has made my stay in this project possible”.
For Carolina Andrade, that combination of factors creates a singular opportunity. Andrade, who studies the concept of Open Innovation Arenas, is in direct contact with Lindholmen Science Park - a leading institution in the development of that work model -, and with Saab. “After a month here, I’ve concluded that you need to experience the arena’s daily activities in order to understand how it really works. CISB is currently a pilot project of a real arena in Brazil, where this work model is still very incipient. Precisely because of that, this study gives me the opportunity to become one of the first specialists in that area on a fortunate moment: when Brazil starts to feel the need of that kind of knowledge and when other countries, like Sweden, shows a great interest in Brazil”.
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ARTICLE
Innovation and sustainability: concrete actions for a more collaborative and sustainable world
Analice Martins, project analyst at CISB
Over the development of the planet Earth, men have become a dominant species capable of controlling other creatures and transforming its natural habitat. As humanity developed, more were its interventions in the environment through its exploitation of natural resources.
For centuries it was believed those resources were endless and that men would be capable of creating, through technological invention, an artificial environment in the case of a possible destruction of nature.
However, after the first industrial revolution, humanity started to feel the first collateral effects triggered by such heavy exploitation. In the 1950’s and 60’s, the black smoke coming out of pipes were a symbol of progress and economic development. The first world enjoyed the “Golden Age”, which, due to the Cold War, brought scientific and technological progress.
After Eco-92, 2012 saw two important events for the history of environment preservation: in April, the Stockholm + 40 conference in Sweden, and in June, the Rio + 20 in Brazil.
Having taking place in a moment of technological progress, concurrent with the world economic crisis, the discussions in both conferences focused on the pursuit for intelligent and sustainable solutions for the development of society.
The way to reducing damages to the environment needs, inescapably, to pass through a great change in the current economic model. A Green Economy Initiative is a venture started in 2008 by the United Nations Program for the Environment to develop a transition between the current model and a new “green economy”. It was one of the key themes discussed in Rio + 20.
The concept also worked as a base for the Green Growth Strategy of the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OCDE), launched in 2009.
According to another report from OCDE, innovation is an important support for sustainable growth, since it involves the generation of knowledge as well as its creative use. This means the creation of new products and green business models are crucial for sustainable development. Companies, governments and universities need to turn their researches towards alternatives that won’t hurt the environment.
In this context, the emergence of organizations like Cisb, whose objective is to facilitate and manage collaborative projects involving government, university and private sector, are increasingly frequent and relevant.
In 2013, among many initiatives, Cisb will act more aggressively in opportunities involving sustainable urban development. A first step was the launching of the Attractive Cities Arena in November, during its 2nd Annual Meeting.
The Arena has brought together global companies like Volvo, Siemens, IBM and Saab AB, which presented concrete initiatives and projects for solutions in cities to be developed in Brazil. Another highlight was the participation of the Interamerican Development Bank presenting the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Platform, which aims to give support to emerging cities in Latin America and the Caribbean and help them to overcome challenges to become more sustainable.
The concept of attractive cities (efficient, safe and sustainable), lead by the Swedish company Saab with Cisb’s support, for instance, illustrates in what way collaborative innovation is capable of creating sustainable solutions for urban planning.
In an attractive city, people, government and decision makers work together sharing information in order to maintain that the main urban fluxes (traffic, draining, electricity, telecommunications) are interconnected. The citizen becomes an active participant in the sharing of that information through applications and social networks. Through that point of view, and making use of cutting-edge information and communications technology, it is possible to detect the main risks cities face – and, then, avoid them.
That strategy involves all domains of society in the city’s development. Each actor feels responsible for it and that generates a collaborative and engaged spirit.
We can conclude that initiatives, institutions and strategies as the ones mentioned are becoming a tendency in a world increasingly integrated and cooperative. The marriage between sustainability and innovation, which results in “green innovation”, appears to be an effective response to the main problems concerning the environment, the society and the economy. It is only through shared intellectual effort that humanity will find intelligent solutions to benefit, without destroying, from the resources given to us by our planet.
*Analice Martins is a project analyst at CISB and pursues an Executive MBA Degree in Environment Management at Getúlio Vargas Foundation.
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BRAZILIAN NEWS
Cisb takes part in the foundation of Sao Bernardo do Campo Science Park
Cisb has engaged in yet another important innovation project in the last month. The center is now one of the funding organizations of the Sao Bernardo do Campo Science Park Association. The new science park has strategic significance for the development of the ABC Region – a heavily industrialized area formed by seven municipalities close to Sao Paulo – and a potential to generate great impact in the national industrial sector.
“The creation of a science park has been discussed since the 1990’s, when the economic crisis lead to companies departing alleging deficiencies in technology and distance from renowned centers of research and development”, says the city’s secretary for Economic Development, Work and Tourism, Jefferson José da Conceição.
The region’s industrialization brought investments and employment, as well as renowned education and research institutions. The region was also the birthplace of prominent labor unions.
In this period, despite the region’s strong economic history, the cities of Campinas, São José dos Campos and São Carlos were the ones that attracted this kind of company precisely because they had excellent research centers. “There was gap in the ABC region between the academia and the productive sector”, concludes Jefferson.
The first initiative to change that scenario was the establishment of the Federal University of ABC in 2005. Less than 10 years later, the institution is already considered one of the best in Brazil. Together with other institutions that also started in the region, like Mauá Institute, Senai, FEI University Center, Unifesp, Fatec, Sao Bernardo do Campo Law School and Methodist University, today it is on the base of the academic knowledge that will give support to the new science park.
“We want the park to act as middle-man between the triple-helix actors (government, companies and universities), creating opportunities for integration among them in the region”, the secretary says. The park will focus on the areas of Oil & Gas, Defense and Automobile. “What needs to be done is very clear – how to do it is still a challenge”.
For this convergence to happen, Cisb’s role is crucial. Besides working directly with the most prominent country in the articulation of the triple-helix, and who already works with themes related to the park’s priority areas, Cisb brings the first steps of the Brazilian experience of seeking, connecting and engaging partners. “We need to count with a brokering expertise that goes beyond the city’s limits”, says Jefferson.
To elect the priority areas, both local vocations and national opportunities were taken into account. Oil & Gas, for instance, was chosen to help organizations to meet the ANP requirements for minimum investment in research and development. In the case of the automobile sector, it’s the Inovar Auto institute that demands such requirements.
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SWEDISH NEWS
Gripen fighter jets gain strength in international dispute
The Swedish parliament approved, in the end of 2012, the acquisition of 40 to 60 Grippen NG jets to be used in the country’s air force. It was a second victory for Saab, after being chosen by Switzerland in the same year. Among the advantages of the Gripen NG, there is the operational performance and the maintenance costs – a relevant aspect considering the current economic scenario, where countries have been downsizing its defense budgets.
This new decision is strategic to Saab, since in Brazil it competes with the same model for the Brazilian Air Force’s FX2 program of modernization of its fighter jets fleet. The fact succeeds the visit of president Dilma Rousseff to France, when negotiations with competitor Dassault were deemed unsuccessful by the international media. On this occasion, the president said the decision depends on the recovery from the current economic crisis.
The company’s interest in the Brazilian market is supported by a recent research that points to the country as a good target for doing business. According to a study conducted by the Swedish Chamber in Brazil, in partnership with Kreab Gavin Anderson, the size and potential of the Brazilian market are seen as the main factors to invest in the country. Upcoming international sportive events and the Pre-Salt project also support such motivation.
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