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Research institutes 

The Brazilian Industrial Research and Innovation Corporation

11

 (Empresa Brasileira 

de Pesquisa e Inovação Industrial – Embrapii) was created in 2013. It aims to 

promote R&D cooperation between firms and research institutes, for the development 

of innovative products and processes. There are a number of other governmental 

institutes, such as: the National Institute of Space Research (Instituto Nacional 

de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE), which aims to develop science and technology in 

space and terrestrial areas of knowledge; the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) 

and the National Cancer Institute José Alencar Gomes da Silva (Inca), linked to 

the Ministry of Health; and the Aerospace Science and Technology Department 

(DCTA), the Technological Army Centre (Cetex) and the Institute of Marine 

Research (IPqM), which are linked to the Ministry of Defence. 

Brazil has a network of research institutes, linked to universities, in the areas 

of agriculture, energy, engineering and information technology, exact and natural 

sciences, human and social sciences, ecology and environment, nanotechnology 

and health.

12

 These institutes collaborate with the Brazilian System of Technol-

ogy (SIBRATEC), which arranges finance to create a favourable environment for 

technological innovation in enterprises. 

Since 1991 there have been fiscal incentives for R&D in the electronics 

sector (through the Information Technology Law). This was a great incentive for 

the establishment of several information and communication technologies (ICT) 

research institutes, many of them linked to foreign companies. The country also 

has several agronomical institutes.

Enterprises, technoparks and special economic zones

Embrapa is a company linked to Mapa, devoted to developing a model of genuine 

Brazilian tropical agriculture and livestock. Embrapa’s technology helped 

incorporate a wide area of degraded 

cerrado

 (savannah) lands into a region that 

now accounts for nearly 50 per cent of Brazilian grain production. Embrapa also 

helped Brazil to multiply its production of animal protein. There are four public 

companies linked to MCTI: Indústrias Nucleares Brasileiras (INB),

13

 Nuclebrás 

Equipamentos Pesados (NUCLEP),

14

 Alcântara Cyclone Space (ACS)

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 and the 

Centro Nacional de Tecnologia Eletrônica Avançada (CEITEC).

16

11. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa e Inovação Industrial

is a para-public organisation.

12. See: <http://goo.gl/Dpt0zF>.
13. Indústrias Nucleares Brasileiras acts in the uranium productive chain, from mining to production of the fuel that 

powers the reactors in the nuclear plants. 
14. NUCLEP produces heavy components for nuclear power plants.
15. A binational Ukrainian-Brazilian company created for development and operation of the Alcântara Lauch Centre in Brazil.
16. Centro Nacional de Tecnologia Eletrônica Avançada works in the development and production of integrated circuits 

for radio frequency identification and specific applications.

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Petrobras is an oil company controlled by the Brazilian government. It owns 

the Leopoldo Américo Miguez de Mello R&D Centre (Cenpes), located on the 

campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Cenpes was crucial 

to the exploration of oil on the continental shelf offshore and in deep sea. 

The discovery of large oil reserves in the pre-salt layer turned the technopark located at 

UFRJ into a very active one, attracting R&D centres from several multinational 

corporations. The Brazilian Association of Science Parks and Business Incubators 

(Anprotec) has approximately 280 members.

Several firms have their own R&D laboratories.

17

 In Brazil, about 47 per 

cent of R&D spending is made by the business sector,

18

 and the manufacturing 

business associations are active in STI discussions. The National Confederation of 

Industry (CNI) sponsors an innovation prize and regularly publishes reports with 

recommendations regarding STI policies. Innovative firms created the National 

Association for Research, Development and Engineering of Innovative Firms 

(ANPEI). Brazil has a special economic zone in Manaus, in the Amazon region, 

but it has an emphasis on regional development.

Regulatory and policy framework of the National Innovation System

Main recent plans/programmes

Since 2003 the federal government has developed three industrial policies, all of 

which contained actions related to innovation. The most recent science and technology 

plan is the National Strategy of Science, Technology and Innovation 2012-2015,  

which establishes the following priority areas and technologies: ICTs, the health 

industrial complex, oil and gas, defence, aerospace, nuclear, biotechnology, 

nanotechnology, green economy (renewable energy, biodiversity, climate change, 

oceans and coastal zones) and science and technology for social development.

19

Science without Borders (CsF) is a programme developed by a partnership 

between the MCTI, the Ministry of Education and the private sector, promoting 

international exchanges for Brazilian undergraduate and graduate students at 

foreign universities. The focus is on technology-related areas. 

The National Knowledge Platforms Programme is a recent policy that aims 

to stimulate partnerships between enterprises and scientific and technological 

institutions to jointly resolve specific complex technical problems in the development 

of innovative products or processes. 

17. For a survey of manufacturing and selected service sectors. See: <http://goo.gl/m44967>.
18. See: <http://goo.gl/XtnFvX>.
19. Brazil has a Four-Year Plan established by the Constitution.

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Inova Empresa

 is also a recent plan aimed to boost investments in innovation, 

including projects with greater technological risk, and to strengthen the links 

between enterprises, research institutes and government. The target areas are: 

agroindustry, energy, oil and gas, health, aerospace and defence, ICTs and sustainability. 

FINEP and BNDES are the main operators of 

Inova Empresa

. For other programmes, 

see Araújo (2013).

Financial and tax mechanisms

Sectoral funds are the main financial mechanisms to finance scientific research in 

Brazil. They were created in the late 1990s to provide a stable source of resources 

for R&D. They are administered by FINEP, which also operates with credit and 

economic subsidies. BNDES runs an innovation credit operation and also has know-how 

in financing sectors with a high proportion of intangible assets, such as software. 

Since the end of the 1990s there have been a number of private and govern-

mental venture capital and private equity initiatives, but there is still much room 

for development. The Brazilian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association 

was founded in 2000, and the Brazilian Startups Association (ABStartups) was 

founded in 2011. For other financial and tax mechanisms, see Araújo (2013) and 

De Negri and Kubota (2008). As mentioned before, states may have their own 

financial and tax subsidies. 

Relevant legislation 

The main laws related to innovation are: Law 10.973/2004 (innovation), 

Law 11.196/2005 (tax incentives); laws with incentives for ICT: Law 8.248/1991, 

Law 10.176/2001 and Law 11.077/2004; Law 11.105/2005 (biosafety); Decree 

Law 1.982/1982 and Law 10.308/2001 (nuclear activities); Interim Measure 

2.186/2001 (genetic heritage); Law 11.794/2008 (use of animals in scientific 

experiments); Law 9.112/1995 (sensitive items); Law 9.610/1998 (copyright); 

Law 9.279/1996 (brands and industrial property); and Decree 8.269/2014 (knowledge 

platforms). For a description of some of these laws, see Koeller and Gordon (2013).

1.1.2 Russia

“

Russia has an important innovation potential, with high tertiary education rates, 

a large science base inherited from the Soviet Union, strong positions in some 

science and technology fields and a government that recognizes the importance 

of innovation” (OECD, 2014b: 118). Despite these positive characteristics, there 

remain significant challenges, such as: low demand for innovation from enter-

prises; a relatively low level of investment by businesses; institutional imbalances 

(a high concentration of R&D in large firms, especially state-owned enterprises 

and research institutions, the weak role of universities) etc. 

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The Russian Federation has a mission-oriented science and technology 

system, and only at the end of the 20

st

 century did the importance of STI 

and an understanding of the NIS as a wider system of national institutions 

gain the State’s and society’s attention. To understand the current Russian 

NIS, it is important to take into consideration the strong negative impacts 

of the transition from a planned to a market economy.

20

 Over the past few 

years innovation has been a major political priority. In the 2000s the Russian 

Federation experienced an overall growth in the national economy and labour 

productivity, and its service sector developed faster than in any Organisation 

for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member country 

(OECD, 2014c: 244). The level of support for science and innovation and 

the pace of transformation in this sphere increased.

Since 2013 the conditions for implementation of the state innovation policy 

and the development of the NIS in Russia have been considerably complicated 

by macroeconomic and geopolitical issues. However, the government intends to 

continue to support STI, including by optimising the mechanisms and structure 

of resources for this support.

Main actors in the National Innovation System

Parliament

The State Duma (

Gosduma

) is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, 

the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. They participate in the 

development of innovation policy through different committees and working 

groups (for example, the Committees of the Federation Council on Education and 

Science, on Industrial Policy, on Information Policy; the Committees of the State 

Duma on Science and High Technology, on Industry, on Information Policy, on 

Information Technology, on Communications, on Education); organise discussions 

in expert councils; and are engaged in legislative activity.

21

20. In the Soviet Union the R&D expenditures in relation to GDP varied from 3 per cent to 4 per cent. Even in 1990, 

2 per cent of GDP was spent on R&D. The number of researchers as a proportion of the economically active population 

was one of the highest in the world: 200 R&D personnel per 10,000 employees. An active regional policy was 

developed. The Soviet republics had academies of sciences, universities and large R&D centres. In 1989 the Soviet R&D 

sector had more than 4600 organisations including research institutes, design bureaus, HEIs and enterprises. After the 

collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian S&T system faced a severe crisis, and S&T indicators decreased significantly. 

Gross domestic R&D expenditures (GERD), for instance, fell by 75 per cent at constant prices between 1990 and 1995. 

During this period, industry output declined by almost 50 per cent. This situation had a severe impact on the national S&T 

system (Kuznetsova, 2013). Until the late 1970s scientists and university teachers had high salaries (by Soviet standards) 

and prestige in society. The reliance on permanent support from the government and the deterioration of researchers’ 

material situation explains why a large proportion of the scientific community resisted the market reforms of the early 

1990s. Given that entrepreneurial behaviour and market-style activities were discouraged until 1991, it is unlikely that 

people’s attitudes have completely changed despite extensive market reforms (Klochikhin, 2014).
21. See: <http://goo.gl/fNzRKf>. 

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President

Given the significance of science and innovation for economic growth, in 2012 

the President of the Russian Federation signed several key decrees directly dealing 

with STI. The decrees form a long-term strategy, defining appropriate objectives, 

priorities and target indicators for STI. Among these are the decrees: “On long-term 

economic policy” (No. 596), “On measures to implement state policy in the field 

of education and science” (No. 599), and “On measures to implement state social 

policy” (No. 597). Practical implementation of the decrees is carried out by the 

government and other authorities.

Government and intermediary agencies

In Russia, state control and intervention in the NIS (especially in STI) are widespread, 

by means of direct state ownership, budget financing and control over economic 

activity (OECD, 2011a: 28; Gokhberg and Kuznetsova, 2011). The Ministry of 

Education and Sciences is responsible for the science and technology (S&T) 

sector as a whole and the development of appropriate legislation. The Ministry for 

Economic Development is responsible for R&D components in different sectors 

of the national economy (through major goal-oriented programmes, big projects 

and other initiatives) and overall economic and business legislation. These two 

ministries are jointly responsible for technology implementation zones, venture 

funds, innovation territory clusters, technological platforms, the development of 

breakthrough (critical) technologies etc. 

The Ministry of Information Technologies and Communication and the 

Ministry of Education and Sciences are responsible for the creation of innovation 

infrastructure etc. Certain expenditures not related to programmes are adminis-

tered by the Ministry of Finance, whose Departments of Budgetary Policy and 

Regulation in the Public Sector and Science are responsible for policy and legal 

regulation of relative financial inventions. The Federal Agency for State Property 

Management manages the property of federal R&D organisations (Kuznetsova, 

2013). The Federal Agency for Research Organisations (FARO, established in 

2013) administers the property and evaluates and oversees the activities of the 

Russian Academy of Science institutes and distributes public funding to them. 

A variety of advisory bodies (councils and commissions) work under the 

auspices of the President and the Government of Russia on a wide range of issues 

related to the modernisation and diversification of the national economy on the 

basis of the development of modern technologies and innovations. They combat 

violations of intellectual property rights, define rules for their legal protection and 

use, develop policy proposals in the fields of high technology and innovation, big 

national projects and initiatives, interaction between authorities of different levels in 

the NIS (federal, regional, sectoral), NGOs, research organisations, universities etc.