Many entrepreneurs talk about the difficulty of investing in innovation because of the lack of human resources dedicated to research and development.
of products or processes. However, the Brazilian government has a tool that helps companies resolve this issue: the Rhae Program – Researcher in the Company, coordinated by CNPq – National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, an agency of the Ministry of Science, José Menezes and Jamile Sabatini Marques
Technology and Innovation (MCTI).
Providing information about the Rhae Program was the objective of the presentation made, on February 18, by José Menezes, Science and Technology Analyst and manager of the public call, at the invitation of ABES – Brazilian Association of Software Companies.
“This program has evolved over time and is already consolidated. Currently, it is primarily aimed at serving micro, small and medium-sized companies”, explained Menezes.
It is a tool that brings academia closer to companies, as it inserts researchers – doctors, masters and graduates – into the private sector, through the granting of technological support grants. “We want to raise the level of applied research in companies”, highlighted the executive.
From a formal point of view, the selected researchers become CNPq scholarship holders, and there is no employment relationship between them and the corporation, which does not bear any cost or must pay any fee to the public body.
public call
Managers must submit to CNPq projects that meet the characteristics required by the public call, detailing the work that the researcher and his team will develop in the company. The guidelines can be found at link.
Menezes explained that between 15 and 20% of the projects submitted to each public call for proposals are approved by the evaluation committee – a higher rate than that found in similar programs carried out in other countries.
Judging criteria are: clarity and objectivity, degree of innovation and technological impact, team profile, technical, market and economic feasibility and adequacy of cooperative arrangements.
Before submitting the project to the Council, it is important that the entrepreneur has already made contacts at the Universities and identified researchers who want to participate in the enterprise. “The main difficulty concerns the selection of scholarship holders. For this reason, we recommend this preliminary approach, which is still fundamental for the writing of the proposal, as the researchers can already collaborate in the elaboration”, completes Menezes.
The next Rhae Program calls are scheduled for the following periods:
- March 17th to May 2nd, 2014
- August 18 to October 03, 2014
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