The year 2023 begins with the excellent news that the Institute of Mathematical and Computing Sciences (ICMC), at USP/São Carlos, is among the ten research centers in the country selected by the Brazilian Company for Research and Industrial Innovation (EMBRAPII) and by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) to receive investments to be applied in innovation projects and industry strengthening.

The announcement, made on December 19, 2022, accredits four São Paulo research institutions, two of which belong to USP. ICMC, which becomes part of EMBRAPII's innovation ecosystem in the areas of Data Science, Computing and Applied Mathematics, will receive R$ 5 million. In the State of São Paulo, the Institute of Chemistry at USP, Unicamp, through the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, and Embrapa Instrumentation, headquartered in São Carlos, were also awarded funds for investments in their areas of expertise. The other six accredited institutions are located in different regions of Brazil.

According to the director of the ICMC, André Carlos Ponce de Leon Ferreira de Carvalho, the communication of the approval of the proposal was received with great satisfaction. "Our intention with this accreditation is to encourage the transfer of knowledge generated at ICMC to the industry, combining our research and extension activities to strengthen industry innovation in the country. The selection process included the submission of a proposal and an interview. rigorous selection process, we were able to prove our structure and our human capital to host the EMBRAPII Unit, which will work in an integrated way with the activities already carried out with excellence at ICMC", said the director. Still according to him, the approval of the ICMC proposal is the result of a collective effort. "Professors and technical-administrative staff dedicated themselves with great enthusiasm to preparing a proposal that would unite the solidity of our research and innovation with our potential to solve problems in a larger number of industries".

National reference

ICMC is one of the main Brazilian institutes for research and training in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Research carried out at the ICMC won several national and international awards, recalls the director. "In the last 10 years, four of the ten theses awarded by CAPES in the major area of Computer Science were defended at the ICMC, the four in Data Science or Artificial Intelligence. The ICMC participates in the Governance Committee of the Brazilian Strategy of Artificial Intelligence and offers a Bachelor's Degree in Data Science, an MBA in Data Science, an MBA in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence and a Professional Master's in Data Science, which will work in an integrated manner with the Embrapii unit".

Likewise, the Center for Applied Research in Smart Cities – IARA (ICMC-FAPESP-MCTI-CGI.br), one of the spaces of the C4AI Artificial Intelligence Center (ICMC-POLI-FAPESP-IBM) will work in an integrated manner with the Embrapii unit. ) and the CeMEAI Industry Applied Mathematical Sciences Center, (CePID-FAPESP), which has Data Science as one of its 3 main areas: "CeMEAI, headquartered at ICMC, brings to the unit the rich experience acquired in the last 12 years in partnerships with industries, through courses, projects and workshops", explains André.

Embrapii is the result of a partnership established in 2011 between the Brazilian Government and the National Confederation of Industry to strengthen innovation and competitiveness in Brazilian industry. For its operation, a new model of partnership between technological research institutions in the country and national industries was proposed. To structure its operation, a Cooperation Agreement was signed with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) and the Financier of Studies and Projects (FINEP). The first Embrapii units were created in 2013, and since then, Embrapii has not stopped growing.

The resources contributed and managed by Embrapii, which are non-refundable, finance projects between companies and EMBRAPII units, to meet the demands of Research, Development and Innovation of industries. Because they are centers of recognized technical capacity, they have several successful cases in supporting the development of technological solutions in an innovative way.

Interested companies must present the technological challenge to the Unit with the technical competence to solve the needs that the project requires.

The ten entities now selected will join the current 87 members of the network. In nine years of existence, 1,800 projects have already been supported.