Overview

© iStockphoto

Brazil offers excellent opportunities in the fields of research, and innovation. Its universities, research institutes, agents, and funding institutions those who are interested in being involved in research and innovation in the country. 

A variety of players are conducting Research, Development and Innovation in Brazil. The nation’s main government institutions are its public universities, institutes of technology, agencies that foster research and, more recently, Brazil’s Non-profit for Industrial Research and Innovation Embrapii.   

Also involved in the innovation scenario in Brazil are business incubators, technology parks, private investors, companies and such systems as the National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (SENAI) in its innovation institutes, as well as the Brazilian Support Service for Micro and Small Enterprises (SEBRAE). 

Research in Brazil

Research in Brazil is concentrated in universities and other federal or state institutions. There are currently 316 public and 2,264 private higher education institutions in the country. They are divided into 205 universities (116 public and 89 private), 393 university centres (nine public and 384 private), 1,941 colleges (150 public and 1,791 private) and 41 Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology and Federal Centres of Technological Education.

A total of 24.7 million places were offered by all institutions in 2023 – 95.9% of them in the private network. Nearly eight out of ten places offered by the entire higher education system in Brazil are distance learning (19.2 million), with private institutions accounting for 99.3 per cent of these.

The data are included in the 2023 Higher Education Census, published by the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the Anísio Teixeira National Institute for Educational Studies and Research (Inep) in October 2024.

In July 2021, the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI) launched the National Innovation Policy, focusing on the period from 2021 to 2024, which presents thematic plans for the years 2021 and 2022. Innovation activities were classified under six categories: 

National Innovation Policy  

  1. Education – focus on improving people’s education; 
  2. Technological base: support for infrastructure and basic technologies to stimulate innovation; 
  3. Markets: improving regulatory frameworks; 
  4. Culture of Innovation: encouraging a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship; 
  5. Protecting Knowledge: improving intellectual property; 
  6. Fostering innovation: introducing new financial mechanisms to support innovation.  

An Innovation Chamber was also created, whose function is to structure and guide the operations of instruments and processes necessary for the implementation of an innovation policy. Representatives of the Executive Office of the President of Brazil and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MRE), Defence (MD), Economy (ME), Education, Health (MS), Mines and Energy (MME), Regional Development (MDR), Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Communications (MCom) and Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa).  

The strategy, composed of objectives, goals and initiatives, organizes government priorities and forms the basis for the elaboration of action plans. As highlighted by the MCTI, these new guidelines seek to increase the cohesion, synergy, and effectiveness of policies focusing on innovation that previously occurred in isolation within the different ministries.  

According to the decree that instituted the National Innovation Policy, the actions included in the plans seek to meet the demands of the ecosystem, such as encouraging private investment in innovation; support for startups and open innovation initiatives; and programs to support the structuring technologies in such areas as agriculture, renewable energies, space, and others.  

The document also provides for the review of higher education curricula for the purpose of promoting a more practical, entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary approach to the development of entrepreneurship and innovation.  

The strategy sets out its main objectives and areas of activity between 2021 and 2024, providing means for them to be reviewed every two years. There are also employment goals in the areas of innovation, quantity objectives in technical and undergraduate courses, incentives for innovative cultures, and consolidation of RD&I data.