National Research Council (Brazil)

Founded in 1951, the National Research Council (CNPq) is an agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) that promotes scientific and technological research and scientific training. CNPq is responsible for the organization and financing of a substantial portion of the research conducted as part of the Brazilian nanotechnology policy.

The first investments in nanotechnology by the CNPq were made in 1987. However, it became more heavily involved in 2001, with the publication of the first research call specifically aimed at nanoscience and nanotechnology. This call was decisive in establishing a research format of cooperative networks with the purpose of connecting researchers and institutions from different regions of the country and maximizing the use of research infrastructure. Four research networks were financed.

In 2004, the MST included the National Program for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in its Four-Year Plan. It fell to the CNPq to organize procedures to encourage research and to upgrade laboratory infrastructure. In addition to a number of calls hailing research in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology, the CNPq called for research into the [Page 592]impacts of nanotechnology on the economy and society, funding four projects. This call has so far been the only one of its kind. The cooperative model (evaluated as successful due to the results obtained by the four initial research networks) was continued in 2005, this time with 10 networks. These networks focused their research on industrial applications, keeping pace with the growing connection between nanotechnology policy and industrial policy, which in 2005 brought about the National Nanotechnology Program.

The CNPq has also promoted research into nanotechnology through other programs, such as the Millennium Institutes, with five institutes with work connected to nanotechnology, and the National Program for the Support of Incubators and Technological Parks of the MST, supporting companies incubated in the nanotechnology sector. Since 2005, there have been annual research calls aimed at young doctors, a decisive policy made to rapidly increase the number of researchers in nanotechnology. In 2001, the earliest estimates by the CNPq were that around 200 leading researchers were working in the field; by 2007, the MST estimated that there were approximately 3,000 in the field, including researchers, professors, and students.

In 2008, the MST (through the CNPq and in partnership with other federal and state science and technology organs) launched the National Science and Technology Institutes Program, which was conceived by strategic players in the National System of Science and Technology. Of the 123 institutes that were approved, 10 are focused on nanotechnology. Finally, the CNPq plays an active role in promoting international cooperation by forming research partnerships, and through exchange programs for researchers operating in institutions in a number of different countries.