Sandra Negraes Brisolla

As relações universidade-empresa-governo: um estudo sobre a Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)

Recent studies on the relationship between university and society have indicated the emergence of a Second Academic Revolution, as to the classical activities of teaching and research, universities are now incorporating local and regional development. Additionally, some authors suggest the Triple Helix concept, an intermediate proposal between free market economy and a centrally planned one, and an alternative for the linear innovation model approach. The present survey intends to appraise the intensity of these transformations in the Brazilian case, more specifically at a renowned university, Unicamp - established in the early 1960s to perform technological research to support the countrys industrialisation process. First, data from Foundation for the Development of Unicamp were collected for the period 1982-1995. 732 contracts were evaluated. Contracts were analysed as to number, average duration, total funding, and average value, as well as by date and category of the funding agency. In the second part, a sample of 25% of the contracts conducted with industry and public administration was selected, a total of 116 contracts leading to 57 interviews with professors-co-ordinators of the selected contracts. Data collected during this phase were related to characterisation and evaluation of contracts, profile, motivation and interaction tendencies, as well as an appraisal of a liaison office.

Indicadores para apoio à tomada de decisão

The author analyses indicators for science and technology, which are receiving a decisive support from institutions in charge of planning and implementing sector policies, due to new economic trends: the growth of knowledge contents in the value composition of goods and services, and the increase of research costs and the reduction of public resources to finance it, which introduce the need of performance evaluation in public institutions. Making use of S&T indicators developed by FAPESP, this paper discusses the great theoretical difficulty in establishing suitable indicators and how to collect them, as well as the practical problems in gathering a reliable set of variables that makes possible the definition and implementation of scientific and technological policy.