Panorama de inovação biotecnológica no Estado do Ceará e a atuação da Universidade Federal do Ceará.

Abstract

Globalization has brought a differentiated movement to the market, which induces the need for permanent innovation and contributes to a technological competition based on the reproduction of knowledge. Modern biotechnology is already considered as an indicator of innovation and is seen as a strategic theme for the development of a knowledge-based economy in several countries, including Brazil, relating various actors, meeting a model known as Triple Helix, represented by academia. , enterprise and government, and within more specific systems, Local Innovation Systems (SLI). The centralization of science and technology prevents standardized development in all regions of Brazil, and the Northeast has historically been affected by this condition. Thus, it is necessary to propose improvement solutions for the technological development and innovative extension of the Federal University of Ceará aiming at the insertion of biotechnology as an area and profession in the Ceará labor market. To measure this contribution, a comparison was made with the Federal University of Minas Gerais, part of an advanced biotechnological SLI, in relation to the university's innovative contribution, including patents, licensing, the activities performed by the Technological Innovation Centers (NITs) and the insertion of universities within the local system. For this purpose, a descriptive and exploratory analysis was used for the use of university documents and provided by the respective NITs, websites and platforms for patent analysis. Few studies refer especially to this university's innovative contribution to biotechnology. The Federal University of Ceará, despite its vast and well-distributed biotechnology structure, still makes a limited contribution to the formation of a biotechnology system. This is because, despite the wide generation of scientific articles provided by such a structure, there is still a low patenting rate. Moreover, with the Coordination of Technological Innovation under restructuring, the work in the area carried out by the university does not reach the business community, bringing difficulty in interacting with companies, small insertion of terms related to innovation in their institutional documents and websites, low patent filing, few licensing carried out and a still poorly structured ITC. The limited capacity in the development of these elements prevents a greater insertion of biotechnology in a regional conjuncture, repressing the emergence of Local Productive Arrangements in the area and, in a local reality, negatively impacting the opportunities of internship and insertion of biotechnologists in the industry. Thus, greater support for biotechnology is required at the university. The government acts not only by facilitating laws and notices, but also by helping to fulfill a national and local biotechnology agenda, in particular through the Secretariat of Science, Technology and Higher Education, which can provide chairs for such professionals. in the office itself; Similarly, companies are vital, as innovation is only consummated by reaching inventions off the shelf. Partnership with the Federation of Industries, therefore, is essential not only to assist in the absorption of professionals, but also to ensure the fulfillment of state and municipal goals for the area.