27/06/06

Brazil creates fund to fuel technology innovation

The parasite that causes Chagas disease: the fund's priorities include developing drugs for such neglected diseases Copyright: WHO/TDR/Stammers

By: Carla Almeida

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Brazil creates fund to fuel technology innovation</h1>
<h4>By: Carla Almeida</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>[RIO DE JANEIRO] The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) has created a fund worth 153 million reais (US$68.4 million) to support technology development.</P><br />
<P>The Technology Fund launched last week (21 June) will sponsor projects that relate to economic and social development in specific subject areas, including agricultural biotechnology, drugs for neglected diseases, software and semiconductors. </P><br />
<P>Research into generating energy from biomass — such as developing fuel based on alcohol derived from fermented sugar cane — will also be eligible.</P><br />
<P>The bank has already invested US$128 million in such projects. The existing projects will be competing with new ones for the technology fund’s grants. </P><br />
<P>The fund is intended to support projects that find technological solutions to problems already identified by Brazilian research institutes and economists. </P><br />
<P>It also aims to promote innovation by backing ideas that look set to introduce new products onto international markets, something that Brazil has not excelled at to date. </P><br />
<P>Aluísio Asti, one of bank’s economists who helped set up the fund, told SciDev.Net that the bank considers innovation a priority, as “technology and innovation are critical factors for the country’s development”.</P>Asti said the Technology Fund would operate in line with the bank’s innovation policy that was introduced in 2005.<BR><BR></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/brazil-creates-fund-to-fuel-technology-innovation/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/brazil-creates-fund-to-fuel-technology-innovation/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

[RIO DE JANEIRO] The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) has created a fund worth 153 million reais (US$68.4 million) to support technology development.

The Technology Fund launched last week (21 June) will sponsor projects that relate to economic and social development in specific subject areas, including agricultural biotechnology, drugs for neglected diseases, software and semiconductors.

Research into generating energy from biomass — such as developing fuel based on alcohol derived from fermented sugar cane — will also be eligible.

The bank has already invested US$128 million in such projects. The existing projects will be competing with new ones for the technology fund’s grants.

The fund is intended to support projects that find technological solutions to problems already identified by Brazilian research institutes and economists.

It also aims to promote innovation by backing ideas that look set to introduce new products onto international markets, something that Brazil has not excelled at to date.

Aluísio Asti, one of bank’s economists who helped set up the fund, told SciDev.Net that the bank considers innovation a priority, as “technology and innovation are critical factors for the country’s development”.

Asti said the Technology Fund would operate in line with the bank’s innovation policy that was introduced in 2005.