Firstly, Brazil Technology Network’s first action will create a database of the national research institutions and firms’ technological development potential, aiming at upcoming interconnection of applicable research projects. Disclosure of this information, through the Website (www.redebrasil.gov.br), is a product of this action, as well as the following:

Identification of Entrepreneurial Technological Demands: This action intends to find the national industry’s necessities in regards to technological support. The research institutions’ laboratories listed in Brazil Technology Network will provide the solution to these demands;

Cataloguing Technological Support Service Providers: its goal is to inform the national industry about certifications, rehearsals, tests and inspections of goods and services available in Brazil. Its agents are universities, technological institutes and private laboratories.

The Executive Coordination of Brazil Technology Network will operate the above-cited actions. The information generated by them will be accessible to users from all sectors of the economy.

Brazil Technology Network will form a partnership with State Secretariats of Science and Technology through the regional networks to promote the following action:

Project Articulation for Competitive Substitution of Imports and Added Value to Exports.

At first, it will act in the Petroleum, Gas, Energy and Mining sectors. Later it will expand to other sector, such as the agribusiness. Its steps are:

a) Projects Directory

Brazil Technology Network and the Leading Firms of the chosen sectors will define the Projects Directory. The enterprises willing to develop projects for the substitution of imports will receive concrete information about such items; potential market; international price; main manufacturers; and technology applied in the production of these goods and services;

b) Identification of Firms and Universities to Realise the Projects

Brazil Technology Network and the regional networks will consult firms and universities through their e-mail lists to find possible producers of proposed projects. In the event that two enterprises are willing to develop a good or service, the leading firm that has indicated the opportunity will evaluate technical criteria to decide the most qualified;

c) Application of Mechanisms to Project Financing

The operation models set by the Financing Agency for Research and Projects (FINEP) will define the financing mechanism of each project. Sectorial Funds must finance Research and Development. Development Banks must finance firms infrastructure, when necessary, and also finance the buying of a “pilot batch” by the Leading Firm partner of Brazil Technology Network.

Furthermore, strategical bodies of Brazil Technology Network will work in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MRE), the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), and the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (SEBRAE) in these areas:
MRE - commercial promotion and intelligence;
MDIC - legislation that affects the country’s technological development, financing, technical barriers and certifications; and
SEBRAE - development of programs for entrepreneurial capacity building.