Centre for Europe-Brazil Business & Innovation Cooperation

Project Title: Centre for Europe-Brazil Business & Innovation Cooperation
Client: European Commission
Partner: 12 institutions from Europe, Brazil and Turkey: companies (SPI, RCISD), universities (UNICAMP, SU), promotional agencies (FFG), R&D organizations (FHG, DLR) and non-profit organizations (IASP, CNI, EBN, ANPEI, CONFAP).

CEBRABIC is the ancestor of ENRICH in Brazil. ENRICH in Brazil aims to initiate collaboration between Brazilian and European organizations in the areas of research, technology and entrepreneurship. Further, ENRICH in Brazil supports private and public innovation institutions alongside their innovation processes. The network has the vision to become a main hub and contact point for European and Brazilian science, technology, and innovation (STI) actors aiming at bilateral cooperation, as soon as 2021.

ENRICH in Brazil supports partner organizations to start business in Brazil by offering relevant information, arranging networking opportunities, advising on government aid and funding, giving legal advice, strengthening visibility as well as providing trainings.

⇨ Find more information on the ENRICH in Brazil website.

Berlin, January 24. A consortium of twelve European and Brazilian organizations has launched a new collaboration under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Programme (Grant Agreement nº 733531). CEBRABIC – the Centre for Europe-Brazil Business & Innovation Cooperation – aims at enhancing the cooperation in research, technology and entrepreneurship between the EU member states and Latin America’s leading economy, Brazil. The diverse project consortium will work together for four years to set up the CEBRABIC centre and is coordinated by Fraunhofer IPK, located in Berlin, Germany, with a track record and offices in Brazil.

What?
CEBRABIC will be a Centre working on a network basis. Creating synergies and complementarities is the core value of CEBRABIC, particularly with European research and innovation (R&I) structures located in Brazil, to complement, expand and enhance its service portfolio. Different types of stakeholder incorporation into CEBRABIC network is foreseen, either from the demand or supply service: members, service providers, regional innovation hubs and focal points.

Where?
CEBRABIC will be national wide network in Brazil, locally and regionally supported by 15 SENAI Innovation Centres – part of CNI structure, through the National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI) – as well as further partners acting as regional innovation hubs located in all Brazilian regions. Its headquarters and representation offices, working on behalf of CEBRABIC will be located in Brasília, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Why?
CEBRABIC network will support the creation of R&I&B opportunities for European organizations in Brazil, stimulating demand and cooperation. The Centre will not only provide support-based services (e.g.: network, advice, training etc.), but also technology-related services, resourcing to the network of regional innovation hubs and of external service providers, constantly seeking for linkages to the private industrial sector and to investors. Altogether, this will enable CEBRABIC to address knowledge-intensive sectors, offering a service portfolio that corresponds to an integrated approach towards the innovation value chain and that stimulates research-to-market collaborative projects.

How?
CEBRABIC intends to cluster at the European level services, which are currently provided at the bilateral level by European structures with presence in Brazil representing the interests of a specific EU member state and their organizations. This clustering will build upon the service mapping and will help maximizing the impact and range of those services, leading to a complementary and coherent service offer at the bilateral and European level. These European structures will be duly involved in CEBRABIC network, mainly as regional innovation hubs. Such involvement in CEBRABIC network of European structures with presence in Brazil will also allow for the Centre to partially outsource its services in concrete cases, particularly when there is a need for specific expertise and/or there is a similar service already being offered by one of the members of the network. This will enable CEBRABIC to rely on a lean organizational structure, with just the essential physical and human resources allocated, which will lead to an efficient and sustainable financial management of CEBRABIC.

The project foresees 3 main stages for CEBRABIC development. A planning stage (up to one year), under which CEBRABIC business model will be fully developed and drafted; a piloting stage (Month 13 until Month 24), under which CEBRABIC will provide services as a project office and on an experimental basis, the results of which will be duly monitored and assessed, leading to the adjustment and finalization of CEBRABIC business model in its different aspects; a full implementation stage (Mont 25 until Month 48), under which CEBRABIC, as an independent legal entity will be providing the services fully independent from the partnership, bearing all the costs and revenues related to its activities. CEBRABIC aims at achieving financial self-sustainability during the project lifetime.