Collaboration with university and the innovative activities of Brazilian firms

Abstract

This paper aims at mapping universityindustry inter action and collaboration in Brazil. Using indepth interviews to a sample of res earch groups at universities and at public research organisations, we find that coll aboration with industry is mostly set to support the development of new products and processes, and to a lesser extent, training of firms’ employees and the indust rial use of university's infrastructures. Universityindustry collaborative p rojects tend to be initiated by firms or by academic researchers, who came out with a spe cific proposal for the improvement of processes or the market position of the firm. Finally, academic researchers in Brazil seem to have a more entrepren eurial attitude towards collaboration with industry than in developed count Ries.