Brazil is the fifth-largest country in the world, with a population of approximately 185 million. It has one of the world’s most rapidly developing economies and a GDP per head that is greater than either China or India. Today, Brazil is the UK’s most important trading partner in Latin America, with bilateral trade exceeding £3 billion in 2007. It has natural resources in abundance, a developed industrial base and substantial human capital. Brazil is asserting its presence on the world stage as an emerging power and is enjoying its first sustained period of export-led growth in 20 years. The country has immense potential as a trade and investment partner, with huge opportunities for UK companies across a wide range of sectors.

Brazil has also had a great improvement in the development of science in the past decades, and it is currently producing over 10,000 PhDs per year. The increasing share of Brazilian articles in world publications indicates that the country is not only producing more science and more scientists, but that such scientists are producing better science too. In some disciplines, such as IT, Brazil is producing comparatively more PhDs than other developing countries such as India and China. Agricultural sciences, which play a crucial role in bioenergy and biofuel research is a sector with great potential of development and can represent the overall development in research in Brazil.

This scenario indicates that the growing economy is benefited by a growth in opportunities for incorporation of technologies by the Brazilian industry. The Brazilian government stimulates innovation with the recent creation of the Innovation Law and through public funding for new enterprises (FINEP is the Brazilian equivalent of the recent UK Innovation Fund, and was created in the 60’s). Through the work developed by the Science and Innovation Network (SIN) and the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the UK is a solid partner for Brazil in both bilateral trade and research. As Brazilian innovation agencies become increasingly involved in the process of spin-out company formation and international licensing they continue to look at the UK as a partner of choice.

To optimise this opportunity for UK high-tech SME’s and spin-outs, SIN and UKTI joined up efforts and created the International Innovation Programme (IIP). The IIP consists of a support framework designed to assist the commercialisation of technologies in the Brazilian market and the establishment of partnerships between UK and Brazilian companies, maximising the effectiveness of market entry strategies in Brazil.

The SIN and UKTI experiences showed that the establishment of a solid partnership with the right local stakeholder is vital if the UK company wishes to succeed in Brazil. However, in the case of an UK SME company, it is very difficult to find alone an appropriate/adequate partner in the private sector. On the other hand, the development of research partnerships with local SMEs or universities can result in the establishment of joint ventures that would facilitate the commercialisation of the technology in a Brazilian context.

In other words, the strategy relies on the idea that partnerships in research can be used as a vehicle for the successful commercialisation of UK technology in the Brazilian market. Local partners benefit from a strong public support framework, including services provided by business associations, access to the Brazilian schemes for R&D funding etc. Through a well-established network of contacts, the IIP can help British SMEs establishing joint-research with Brazilian universities, incubated companies, new companies, research institutes or joint ventures with other SME’s.

Find out more about the International Innovation programme (PDF file)

Contact Us:

If you are interested in finding out more about our work and how we can assist your company entering the Brazilian, please feel free to contact us:

Carolina Costa - Innovation Officer

British Consulate-General in Sao Paulo

Phone: +55 11 30942745

E-mail: carolina.costa@fco.gov.uk