The role of Brazilian firms in nanotechnology development

Brazil is the leading country in nanotechnology research in Latin America and has been the first to implement a national policy to stimulate the productive sector to innovate in that emerging field. Based on Georgia Tech global databases of nanotechnology scientific publications and patents, we analyze the role of Brazilian firms in the development of nanotechnology, their research and commercialization activities, their collaborations, and their engagement with nanotechnology programs. We look in particular at nine case studies of leading firms. Our data show that the nanotechnology policy has stimulated research in companies in close collaboration with universities and research centers. However, most of those companies were already within a very select group of innovative firms or are very dynamic starts-ups. Overall, companies still exhibit a low innovation profile in nanotechnology, in line with the overall poor industry innovation landscape of the country.