The FAPERGS program on university versus private enterprise

The Rio Grande do Sul (RS) is the southeast state of Brazil and the Foundation for the Support of Scientific Research in RS (FAPERGS) is the governmental agency responsible for the science and technology policy. Besides its normal activities FAPERGS is also responsible for the planning, evaluation of peculiar projects, their financing and continuous accompanying of the results. In this circumstance, one tentative program to develop interactions among existing research groups and private enterprise located in RS state was developed during a four year period (1991-1994). From two hundred and twenty seven projects which were presented, ninety four projects were approved and received financial support. The final evaluation of the results was accomplished in January 1995. In this paper we discuss the results of the evaluation: Numbers are given on the products obtained and processes developed. The correlation between the investment and results from taxes due to the commercialization of the new products is also presented in this paper for some of the projects.