Another group appears to be genuinely entrepreneurial, creating businesses based on the education they received at universities. \u201cAround 22% of the legal entities are companies that are not classified as micro or small businesses. These cases may not fall under a pejotiza\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> strategy, although we do not have concrete data to confirm this,\u201d says Colombo.<\/p>\n Among the PhD holders with registered companies, around 60% already had a Brazilian Corporate Taxpayer Registration number (CNPJ) before completing their degree. This suggests a third profile: individuals taking a graduate degree to improve their qualifications and earnings in the activities they were already engaged in, and not necessarily for entrepreneurial purposes. This may explain why the fields of knowledge with the highest concentration of business owners include law and medicine, among other regulated professions. \u201cIn this case, there may not be any academic vocation or genuine interest in entrepreneurship, taking knowledge produced in academia to the market with some innovation, but rather the aim of improving one\u2019s qualifications to gain an advantage in their practice or office,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n For physicist Anderson Gomes, a researcher at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) who did not take part in the IPEA study, this type of qualification can play an important role in taking new knowledge into society. \u201cI have graduate dentistry students seeking their master\u2019s degrees and PhDs in order to gain a competitive edge in their practice. By doing so, many end up offering their clients new technologies that they discover through contact with the university,\u201d says Gomes, who is currently the director of the Center for Management and Strategic Studies (CGEE), a research center affiliated with the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation.<\/p>\n He notes that these two types of students, as well as master\u2019s and PhD graduates working as independent contractors and those who have opened technology-based startups, all end up being referred to as entrepreneurs. \u201cThey are all given the same label, but need to be separated. That is why these studies are important and need to advance, so that we can better understand this scenario,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n The Brazilian graduate system was created in the 1960s with the primary purpose of training faculty and researchers for Brazilian universities, and for a long time it fulfilled this role effectively. The large expansion in the number of PhD holders over the past two decades\u2014currently, there are approximately 25,000 new graduates each year\u2014and the limited number of teaching positions in public higher education institutions have led some graduates to seek alternatives in the formal job market, working as researchers contracted by private companies, in the nonprofit sector, or through entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n The analysis of entrepreneurial PhD profiles is important, as it highlights the paths taken in seeking opportunities beyond academia. According to Colombo, the expansion of graduate programs has brought significant benefits to individuals and society, including greater employability, higher salaries, innovation, and human capital. \u201cHowever, some key challenges remain. One of these is the underutilization of doctoral graduates in the workforce, since many work in positions below their level of qualification,\u201d he says. In an earlier study conducted in 2024 on PhD holders in formal employment, Colombo found that approximately 85% of those working outside of the education sector had jobs that did not fully make use of their advanced training.<\/p>\n The IPEA study adopted a broad definition of entrepreneurship, based on participation by doctoral graduates in Brazil\u2019s Corporate Taxpayer Registry (CNPJ) as owners or administrators. In it, entrepreneurship is defined as any case of starting, owning, or managing a business, either as a self-employed individual or as a company. Colombo notes that there are different definitions in other countries, and there is no consensus among the researchers in the field about which is the most accurate. \u201cOne report on PhD holders in the United Kingdom that I cite in the study, by the National Centre for Universities and Business, for example, defines entrepreneurs as \u2018those who have run their own businesses or considered themselves self-employed or are at the conceptual phase,\u2019\u201d says the IPEA researcher. The conceptual phase precedes the start of the business, when the entrepreneur is investigating and assessing the viability of the venture.<\/p>\n The percentage of new PhD graduates who own a business in Brazil is higher than that reported in studies conducted in the USA (9% among PhD holders in science, engineering, and health), in the UK (7% in 2019 and 2020), and in Europe (6.8% of the PhD holders from nine universities in the region between 2016 and 2020 were self-employed). Since there are methodological differences among these studies, it is not possible to make a direct comparison. \u201cEven so, it appears that the Brazilian case reveals a high rate of entrepreneurship,\u201d notes Colombo.<\/p>\n For M\u00e1rcio Flor\u00eancio, who holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration from the Federal Institute of Piau\u00ed (IFPI) and did not take part in the study, the IPEA data can be seen from two perspectives. \u201cOn one hand, it may indicate that these new PhD graduates are managing to transform the results of their research into products or services. On the other, it may signal a lack of opportunities, which leads them to become entrepreneurs out of necessity,\u201d says Flor\u00eancio, one of the coauthors of a literature review on entrepreneurship among researchers in Brazil, published in Revista Gest\u00e3o em An\u00e1lise<\/em> in February 2023. The survey showed that most of the articles on the topic focused on identifying entrepreneurial characteristics and skills in undergraduate students, while less attention was given to graduate students.<\/p>\n![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RPF-empreendedorismodoutores-2025-10-info1-ING-DESK.png\")
\n <\/picture>Alexandre Affonso \/ Pesquisa FAPESP<\/span>\n\u201cThe evidence suggests that organizations and the national economy make poor use of these individuals\u2019 stock of knowledge,\u201d he observes. The problem is also present in other countries. He highlights a report from 2023 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which deals with the growing precarity of doctoral and postdoctoral research careers in member countries, driven by the increase in the number of graduates and by the scarcity of permanent academic positions. One of the initiatives that may help support the development of these researchers is providing entrepreneurship training to students, one of the recommendations of the report. \u201cAdditionally, the OECD recommends other actions: internship programs in companies, incubator policies, and mentoring programs, for example, are some possible initiatives that are more practical and promote the development of entrepreneurial skills,\u201d explains Colombo.<\/p>\n![](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RPF-empreendedorismodoutores-2025-10-info2-ING-DESK.png\")
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rpf-empreendedorismo_doutores-2025-10-800.jpg\")
\u201cThe evidence suggests that organizations and the national economy make poor use of these individuals\u2019 stock of knowledge,\u201d he observes. The problem is also present in other countries. He highlights a report from 2023 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which deals with the growing precarity of doctoral and postdoctoral research careers in member countries, driven by the increase in the number of graduates and by the scarcity of permanent academic positions. One of the initiatives that may help support the development of these researchers is providing entrepreneurship training to students, one of the recommendations of the report. \u201cAdditionally, the OECD recommends other actions: internship programs in companies, incubator policies, and mentoring programs, for example, are some possible initiatives that are more practical and promote the development of entrepreneurial skills,\u201d explains Colombo.<\/p>\n