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Technological parks

Flight plan

Support from the municipal government and from Embraer speeds up project in São José dos Campos

BRAZThe São José dos Campos Technological Park is beginning to take off. Its profile of work has already been defined: it will bring together companies providing technology and support services for the aerospace industry, with Embraer as the anchor. The park will also be open for housing companies with an activity connected with biomedicine – such as diagnostic imaging or medical information technology, for example ” which has a strong connection with the areas of engineering.

The nucleus of the park, a building with 30 thousand square meters of built area purchased by the municipal government, is at the final stage of organization. It will have a strategic role for the enterprise, since it will bring together the basic industrial technology and services for providing support for the companies that install themselves around it. It has already housed, for example, a course in logistics in transport, with 160 places, and, from next year onwards, will also offer lessons in computing and aeronautical technology. The courses are offered by the Faculty of Technology (Fatec), an institution managed by the Paula Souza Center. This month, the nucleus of the park will be the new address of the course of specialization in aeronautical engineering, given by the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) to Embraer’s new engineers, according to Marco Antonio Raupp, the coordinator of the park.

Ready next year will be the Aeronautical Technology Development Center, a set of laboratories to integrate systems, onboard software and light structures, which is being set up by Embraer, in partnership with ITA and the Institute for Technological Research (IPT). The coordination of the park is making plans to also install in the Nucleus a Biomedical Technology Development Center. The building should be totally occupied by the end of the year.

Local vocations
The São José dos Campos Park is part of the São Paulo Technological Parks System – a program of the Secretariat for Science, Technology and Economic Development (SCTDE), housed at and run by FAPESP ” which provides for the installation of similar enterprises all over the state. ‘the objective is to stimulate cooperation between regional research institutions, universities and companies, giving support to the development of intensive initiatives in knowledge” states João Steiner, the coordinator of the program.

Five enterprises – all of them aligned with the local vocations and supported by at least one anchor company – are now under way: in São José dos Campos, aimed at the aeronautical industry; in São Carlos, specialized in the areas of optics, materials and advanced instrumentation; in Ribeirão Preto, focused on the health sector; in Campinas, directed towards communication and information technologies; and in São Paulo, which, very probably, will be under the flag of intensive knowledge services, or so Steiner foresees.
The São Paulo Technological Park is the one that is most overdue. Its installation, planned to occupy a plot of land in the region close to Ceagesp, will require the reclassification of the area. “It’s a complex initiative” he sums up. The other projects are at the stage of accreditation of the area, to be implanted next year.

The São José dos Campos enterprise took a 3-year leap ahead in its timetable, ‘thanks to the support of the city government and to the interest of Embraer” as FAPESP’s scientific director, Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, underscores. The expectation is that the infrastructure of the São José Park will be ready next year. A team of specialists contracted by the coordination of the program has now started the preparation of the urbanistic plan and the business plan, which will attest to the sustainability of the enterprise.

The Master Plan, as it is known, will be ready in 270 days. It will, for example, define the form of use of the total area of 3.5 million square meters around the nucleus of the park, which should include, besides companies, real estate and commercial developments. “We want to attract to the park technology-based industries, technological services, and a residential project, with general services” Steiner explains.

To meet a demand from the municipal government, the Master Plan for the São José dos Campos Park should also incorporate enterprises from the biomedical area. ‘the São Paulo Federal University (Unifesp) is opening a campus in the city and is going to offer courses that permit an intersection with the engineering disciplines, to take advantage of the region’s potential” the park’s coordinator explains. The first courses, in computing science, aimed at biology and medicine, and in nursing, start next year.

There is also a provision for the implantation of a course in biotechnology, with an emphasis on genome technology and information technology. “We are looking for affinities between the research institutes already installed in the municipality and Unifesp. We concluded that we can take advantage of the experience of ITA and the Aerospace Technical Center (CTA) to stimulate the creation of dental and pharmaceutical material companies, such as, for example, manufacturers of prostheses for the circulation” Raupp says.

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