Wealth-Generating
Science
Cradle
of more than 100 knowledge-based
companies, Unicamp,
now 40, is proud of its entrepreneurial-inducing
environment
Clayton
Levy
Turning
scientific knowledge into successful
business has become a specialty
among alumni and former researchers
of the State University of Campinas
(Universidade Estadual de Campinas,
Unicamp). In the last two decades
alone about 100 companies have
been born in the classrooms
of the University, considered
one of Brazil’s centers
of excellence in academic research.
Together, those Unicamp “children”
have total annual sales of more
than R$ 500 million (about US$
230 million). But even those
who preferred to continue in
the academic career are able
to show that science also generates
wealth. Since April Unicamp
has been leading the ranking
of patent requests at the National
Institute of Industrial Property
(Instituto Nacional da Propriedade
Industrial, Inpi, Brazil’s
patents registration bureau),
a position previously occupied
by Brazil’s State oil
company, Petrobrás.
Most
of the companies set up by alumni
and former instructors are dedicated
to information technology, a
growing market already worth
almost US$ 10 billion in Brazil
alone. “Unicamp has taught
us to continue to learn on and
on,” says César
Gon, who got his Master’s
degree in Computer Science in
1995 and today is one of the
owners of Ci&T, specialized
in the development of software
applied to web technologies.
In the market for just 12 years,
the company is expected to end
2006 with total sales of R$
30 million (about US$ 14 million).
The company’s portfolio
of clients include giants such
as HP, Avon, BankBoston, the
Brazilian Mercantile & Futures
Exchange, Caixa Seguros (insurance),
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (the
world’s largest mining
company) and Editora Abril (Brazil’s
largest magazine publisher).
With
partners Bruno Guiçardi
and Fernando Matt, both Unicamp
alumni as well, Gon has just
opened an office in London and
a subsidiary in Philadelphia.
The goal, he says, is to be
closer to clients abroad and
maximize business opportunities.
With the U.S. branch the company
hopes to reach total sales of
R$ 3.6 million (US$ 1.7 million)
this year, a 150% growth in
its sales to the United States.
Ci&T’s
success still amazes Gon. “In
the beginning we had just our
PCs in the back room of a modest
house,” he recalls. Today
the company occupies a 1,200
sq. meter (almost 13,000 sq.
feet) building at the Center
of Research and Development
(Centro de Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento,
CPqD) and has state-of-the-art
equipment, branches in São
Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo
Horizonte and Vitória,
and 315 employees – of
which 65% are Unicamp alumni
too.
Other
Unicamp “children”
were created with the privatization
of Telebrás, Brazil’s
former State telecommunications
company, in the late 1990s.
Such as Optolink, whose area
is photonics. One of the twelve
companies originated at Unicamp’s
Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics
(Instituto de Física
Gleb Wataghin, IFGW) that have
been created in the past 20
years, it is focused on the
production of components used
in optical fiber lines. Those
components are used especially
to ensure that the signal that
contains information is kept
constant as it travels in the
fiber. The company’s owner,
Unicamp alumni Ildefonso Félix
de Faria Júnior, was
part of one of the first groups
of technicians who helped form
Telebrás’ R&D
center. With the company’s
privatization in 1998, Faria
Júnior decided to remain
in the area, but with his own
business. “I decided to
take the risk and I’m
not sorry,” he assures.
The company, which in its first
year had total sales of R$ 40,000
(approximately US$ 19,000),
sold R$ 600,000 (about US$ 285,000)
worth in 2005.
Still
in the segment of optical communications,
one of the highlights is Asga,
led by a former Unicamp instructor,
José Ellis Ripper Filho,
and his partners Francisco Carlos
de Prince and Francisco Mecchi,
both from the University’s
Institute of Physics. With a
degree in Engineering from the
Aeronautics Technology Institute
(Instituto Tecnológico
de Aeronáutica, ITA)
and a PhD from MIT, Ripper Filho
coordinated in 1971 the Program
of Optical Communications (Programa
de Comunicações
Ópticas), a partnership
between Unicamp and the federal
government that resulted in
the development of Brazil’s
first optical fiber –
and which later gave origin
to the CPqD, comprised mainly
of IFGW instructors. In the
following two decades many of
them became entrepreneurs.
In
the case of Ripper Filho, the
move was the result of a series
of economic factors. In the
1980s he was technical director
of a company called Elebra.
In 1987, he and his partners
bought the area of Elebra dedicated
to manufacturing optical fiber
components and created Asga.
Almost 20 years later the company
is Brazil’s largest manufacturer
of equipment for optical communications,
with total sales of R$ 60 million
(approximately US$ 28.5 million)
in 2005.
Junior
companies
The
success reached by former instructors
and alumni reflects in a certain
way Unicamp’s entrepreneurship
favorable environment. In addition
to regular scientific activities
the University has a full range
of extra-curricular programs
that offer countless options
to students who dream of other
horizons. Remarkable examples
of that are the 17 junior enterprises
in operation on campus. Together,
their total sales amount to
R$ 500,000 (about US$ 238,000)
a year. In those small nuclei,
hundreds of students from different
knowledge areas combine research
and entrepreneurship and learn
about market reality.
Ci&T’s
César Gon, for instance,
recalls that his passage through
a University junior enterprise
was essential for his entrepreneurial
formation. “I was able
to experience how the market
operates and learned how to
combine technological knowledge
with administrative capacity,”
he claims. Originated from students’
initiatives, but with the supervision
of specialized instructors,
junior companies offer consulting
services and technical support
and develop studies and projects.
In average, the cost of the
services performed by the students-entrepreneurs
is 50% lower than the market’s.
“Research and entrepreneurship
are areas that complement each
other,” says Unicamp’s
Research pro-rector Daniel Pereira.
For him, professional success,
both as a researcher or as an
entrepreneur, is associated
with the quality of the formation.
Junior
companies are not, however,
the only path towards successful
entrepreneurship at the University.
Created in 2001, Unicamp’s
Business Incubator (Incubadora
de Empresas da Unicamp, Incamp)
has contributed to the formation
of nine knowledge-based companies
and currently holds eleven others
in its premises. Some of them
produce services and equipments
that until recently had to be
imported. Such is the case of
Griaule.
After eight months in the incubator,
the company, headed by electric
engineer Iron Daher, has launched
its first product in the market,
Rex2, a device for controlling
access based on recognition
of digitals. “Ours is
an innovating technology because
it doesn’t require the
introduction of passwords others
do,” he explains.
Patents
Another
proof that scientific research
can generate wealth with social
impact is the University’s
growing number of registered
and licensed patents. Since
April Unicamp leads, for the
first time, the National Institute
for Industrial Property’s
ranking of patent requests.
According to a survey of the
period between 1999 and 2003,
the institution has 191 deposits.
Next come Petrobrás (oil),
with 177; Arno (home appliances),
with 148; and Multibrás
Eletrodomésticos (home
appliances), with 110.
In
2005 alone, Unicamp’s
innovation agency, Agência
de Inovação (Inova),
deposited 66 patents. Inova
was also responsible for 41
agreements for research projects
in partnership with companies.
Such agreements, called collaborative
research (pesquisas colaborativas),
are signed with companies that
look for the University’s
support to find technological
answers to specific demands.
In addition, Inova signed 12
contracts of technology licensing
– products, processes
and know-how. The expressive
performance in this area led
the Brazilian Innovation Agency/Research
and Projects Financing (Financiadora
de Estudos e Projetos, Finep),
part of the Ministry of Science
and Technology, to recognize
Unicamp, in September, as the
institution that best promotes
technological innovation in
Brazil’s Southeast Region.
In
three years of activity, Inova,
which was created with the aim
of strengthening the cooperation
between the Unicamp and companies,
has closed 250 contracts of
technology transfer and technological
services. Roberto Lotufo, Inova’s
executive director, explains
that Brazil does not have a
culture of commercialization
of university-produced technologies
and, given that, the agency’s
role is to stimulate the development
of that culture through the
protection and the licensing
of intellectual property. “In
the beginning of this semester
we deposited more patents than
Petrobrás, but our work’s
most important contribution
is the capacity for commercialization.
It’s to promote innovation
through the commercialization
of those patents,” he
says.
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