O papel das pesquisas científicas na indústria química para a inovação no país

Abstract

The wide recognition of the association between innovation and economic and social development motivated Brazil to adopt a series of mechanisms to encourage innovation explicitly directed at the productive sector in the country, such as the Innovation Law. Although in the accumulated period from 2015 to 2020, Brazilian scientific production grew 32.2%, it was not possible to feel significant changes in the country's innovative power, much less in its economic and social development. To understand the possible reasons that compromise the country's progress in this regard, this work sought to look at the political, industrial, social and economic characteristics of Brazil, as well as at the aspects of the research itself, such as its quality and its applicability within the companies, an applicability that has proved to be very adherent within the chemical industries since its emergence in Europe, mainly from a close relationship with universities. Both universities and the chemical industry will also be highlighted in this work along with scientific research. Universities for being the main research centers in Brazil and participating in various ways as a vector of innovation, and the chemical industry for having a great impact on the Brazilian economy and for participating in the production of products of all technological intensities. In all these aspects, Brazil will be compared with other countries so that it is possible to identify structural bottlenecks that may be preventing the advance of innovation in the country, especially in the national chemical industry. In general, in the ST&I (Science, Technology and Innovation) indicators, Brazil is positioned at an intermediate level – behind developed countries and next to developing countries. Regarding the conditions necessary to innovate, the country has a weakness in relation to the quality of basic education, especially in the exact areas, which is reflected in higher education. Due to the lack of planning and prioritization, the infrastructure of the research centers are small and short-term projects, which prevents the construction of large state-of-the-art technology centers. Furthermore, when compared to other countries, Brazil still has an economy closed to foreign trade and faces many difficulties in doing business internally.