{"id":144799,"date":"2014-02-18T15:59:31","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T18:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=144799"},"modified":"2016-02-04T18:37:30","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T20:37:30","slug":"cutting-edge-dialog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/cutting-edge-dialog\/","title":{"rendered":"Cutting-edge dialog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"RAUL AGUIAR<\/span>FAPESP\u2019s strategy to encourage research by business and foster a closer relationship between the university and the productive sector reached a new level with the introduction of engineering research centers. These centers, sponsored by the Foundation and private companies, have obtained long-term financing and are engaged in research areas on the frontiers of knowledge. Four companies\u2014the automaker Peugeot Citro\u00ebn Brasil, the Brazilian cosmetics company Natura, the oil and gas company BG Brasil and the multinational pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)\u2014recently concluded cooperation agreements with FAPESP, followed by the issue of a call for proposals to establish the centers, which aim to bring together researchers from S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s institutions and universities and these companies. Through these agreements, FAPESP and its partner companies will share investments of R$114 million for a 5-10 year period. Investments by the institutions hosting the centers will be added to this amount, provided in the form of operating expenses and salaries. \u201cThe engineering research centers implemented through a partnership between FAPESP and these Brazilian companies are poised to innovate within a university-business collaborative environment here in Brazil. Such an effort opens up the possibility for joint and long-term research plans, thereby creating a much more effective interaction between academic researchers and companies than what usually happens under short-term projects,\u201d says Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP\u2019s scientific director.<\/p>\n

The results of the Peugeot Citro\u00ebn call for proposals have already been announced: researchers from the University of Campinas (Unicamp), University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP), the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) and the Mau\u00e1 Institute of Technology, in conjunction with Peugeot Citro\u00ebn\u2019s engineers will seek to develop and improve engines powered by biofuels, in a research effort to make them as efficient as gasoline and diesel engines. The project will be supported for four years and is renewable for another six years. The investment will be about R$32 million for a period of 10 years, of which R$8 million comes from FAPESP, R$8 million from Peugeot Citro\u00ebn, and about R$16 million is provided in the form of operating expenses and salaries paid by the participating universities. The center will not have a fixed headquarters but will act as a network for the groups involved. \u201cOne of the pillars of our strategy is the development of clean technologies. We chose to partner with FAPESP and these Brazilian institutions to work on biofuels,\u201d says Jean-Marc Finot, global head of research and advanced engineering for the PSA Peugeot Citro\u00ebn Group.\u00a0\u201cThis type of partnership is more common in Europe. Our goal is to look for new technologies to develop new functionalities and innovations. The scientific knowledge typical of academia is essential to implementing our objectives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The network of researchers who will work at the Prof. Urbano Ernesto Stumpf Center for Research in Engineering was formed when the call for proposals was presented by FAPESP and Peugeot Citro\u00ebn of Brazil, in October 2012. \u201cWe saw that the center had an ambitious vision and that the four universities and institutions could work in a complementary fashion,\u201d says Waldyr Gallo, a professor at Unicamp\u2019s School of Mechanical Engineering. \u201cThe idea was to create a structured approach to the project that would serve as the backbone in the early years and allow the center to gain autonomy and broaden its activities in the long term,\u201d says Gallo. The Unicamp group\u2019s research, led by Gallo, will focus primarily on thermodynamic simulations and analysis of engine performance and the durability of its components, in addition to other projects. Both the Poli-USP team, coordinated by Professor Guenther Krieger, and the ITA team, whose principal investigator is Professor Pedro Teixeira Lacava, will emphasize basic research, which includes studying the details of the physical and chemical phenomena of ethanol combustion. The two groups have been working on this line of research, funded by FAPESP and Vale. \u201cWe studied, under controlled conditions, the process of ethanol droplet and spray formation and their combustion, which enables us to calibrate computer models that simulate the combustion process in turbulent flow,\u201d says Poli-USP\u2019s Guenther Krieger. \u201cIn addition to supporting simulation models, the idea is to help design engines and make our current ones more efficient,\u201d said Pedro Lacava, a professor at ITA. The knowledge generated by the three groups will be tested in trials at Mau\u00e1 Institute, which maintains an engine laboratory, coordinated by Celso Argachoy. \u201cWe have the ability to assemble the engine and make it run the way we want it to run, by applying solutions developed within the group,\u201d says Renato Romio, head of the Mau\u00e1 Institute\u2019s engine and vehicle laboratory. Peugeot Citro\u00ebn selected French engineer Franck Turkovics as deputy director of the center. \u201cWe share with FAPESP a common goal: to achieve an application-ready design, one that it does not just linger in the research stage. This means marrying the engine and the biofuel,\u201d says Turkovics.<\/p>\n

\"\"RAUL AGUIAR<\/span>The desire to develop a better performing ethanol engine is also motivated by academic interest\u2014while the efficiency of gasoline engines is improving overseas, alcohol-based engine technology has been stagnant. \u201cThe idea is not to revive the alcohol engine model, which is already present in 90% of the Brazilian fleet and has been discredited by pricing and supply problems,\u201d says Waldyr Gallo. Let\u2019s imagine, he continues, that a new engine could be used in niche markets, such as light transport vehicles, or to enhance the ecological appeal of hybrid cars, which, obviously, would benefit flex-fuel engines, which have become standard in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Opportunities to generate innovations
\n<\/b>The inaugural model of the PSA Peugeot Citro\u00ebn engineering research center combines features found in two FAPESP initiatives: the special program known as Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDC), which provides long-term support for multidisciplinary teams involved in cutting-edge research areas and the FAPESP program known as Partnership for Technological Innovation (PITE), which supports projects at research institutions developed in cooperation with companies and co-financed by them. FAPESP\u2019s investment in each PITE project requires a counterpart contribution by the interested company, which expands the volume of resources and increases the odds of generating innovations with market impact. Since its inception in 1995, PITE has entered into more than 200 partnerships with companies like Braskem, Vale and Sabesp.<\/p>\n

As with the RIDCs, new research centers have bold objectives that are difficult to achieve in short-term projects. An example of this type of ambitious project is the future Center for Applied Research on Well-being and Human Behavior, the subject of a call for proposals issued in late November 2013 by FAPESP and Natura. The center has a broad objective. It seeks to investigate issues such as the potential to identify scientific markers of well-being in the Brazilian population, find a biological basis for positive behavioral patterns, understand how the brain can help promote positive emotions and behaviors, in addition to understanding how the technological application of such knowledge could produce tools to evaluate and promote the well-being of a population. To do so, it wants to link this knowledge with experts in neuroscience, positive psychology, social psychology, neuroimaging, neuropsychophysiology, psychometrics, population and longitudinal studies, modeling and the construction of mathematical indicators. \u201cInnovation has allowed Natura to develop products and find new business opportunities, and we believe it will continue to ensure the company\u2019s sustainable growth. Well-being is one of the company\u2019s three fields of research, alongside searching for sustainable technologies and developing new cosmetics,\u201d says Gerson Pinto, vice president of innovation at Natura. \u201cWe expect to reap a bountiful harvest from the work of this center, through an expansion of the knowledge produced by universities and by generating differentials for our products and processes.\u201d FAPESP and Natura will each invest R$1 million for a total of R$2 million per year to support the implementation of the center. Funding for the selected proposal will be granted for a period of 10 years. \u201cWe have a long-term relationship with FAPESP. As we are working on the open innovation model, the results will be felt beyond the business environment,\u201d says Gerson Pinto.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"RAUL AGUIAR<\/span>The focus of the GlaxoSmithKline research center is to explore new aspects of sustainable chemistry through a multidisciplinary approach, in order to find more efficient uses of synthetics and develop renewable solvents and reagents from agricultural waste. The call for proposals to create the Center for Research in Sustainable Chemistry was issued in October, and the results should come out in August 2014. \u201cWe can understand that all chemical processes result in stable molecules and often also in residual substances remaining from those processes,\u201d says Antonio Jos\u00e9, GSK\u2019s chief medical officer. \u201cIn crude accounting terms, these substances constitute a \u201csurplus\u201d that does not add value to the original process.\u00a0 Furthermore, these residues can either be harmless or have some impact on health or the environment, requiring specific treatment prior to disposal. Sustainable chemistry seeks to optimize processes and reduce waste,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Jos\u00e9, GSK frequently enters into development partnerships with other established companies or research institutions. \u201cIn this call for proposals we are open to investing in ideas created in Brazil that have the potential to benefit society,\u201d he says. In order to fund the installation of the center of excellence, FAPESP and GSK foresee investments of R$30 million for a period of 10 years. \u201cWe saw that a number of areas of research that have already been discussed and studied in Brazil are innovative. We hope the research results produced by this center will have a positive impact and help in the internal process of optimization and continuous improvement of our processes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An international workshop, sponsored in October 2012 by FAPESP and BG Brasil\u2014national arm of the British BG Group\u2014identified the most significant scientific challenges and opportunities for innovation in natural gas applications in the next 5 to 10 years. Their findings were instrumental in the call for proposals, issued in August, to create a Research Center for Innovation in Natural Gas in S\u00e3o Paulo.\u00a0 \u201cWe left the workshop with research priorities in mind on which BG was working and that were associated with our research priorities,” says Giancarlo Ciola, BG Brasil\u2019s innovation manager. The company has a 27-year concession agreement to work 25% of the Lula field and 30% of the Sapinho\u00e1 field\u2014both in the pre-salt area of the Santos basin\u2014and one of its clauses stipulates that 1% of gross income be invested in research and development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe call for proposals for this research center will allow us to address a number of innovations, related, for example, to reducing emissions and the feasibility of using gas for ocean shipping, among others,\u201d says Ciola. According to him, the opportunity to establish a robust and long-term program, similar to the RIDCs, inspired the company to create the center. \u201cCollaboration is at the heart of our research and development strategy, since we have no internal laboratories. We are establishing a global technology center in Brazil to meet the demands of the group worldwide; we recognize this country\u2019s potential to carry out cutting edge research in our industry.\u201d Each partner will invest R$10 million within a five year period. A workshop to present the call for proposals to interested research groups is scheduled for December 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FAPESP and companies create engineering research centers","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[243],"coauthors":[98,740],"class_list":["post-144799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policies-st-en","tag-innovation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144799"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=144799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}