With the support of Petrobras, the state of Rio de Janeiro was selected for REAP, a startup acceleration program coordinated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The objective is to stimulate the creation and development of startups focused on the energy and sustainability sectors and, with this, transform Rio de Janeiro into the global pole of innovation in these areas.

Petrobras will invest R$ 1.3 million to implement the project, which has a total budget of R$ 3.2 million. The company's resources come from Aneel's research and development (R&D) program. The expectation is, from the beginning of the implementation of the actions, to attract about R$ 200 million in new investments to the state of Rio de Janeiro, including investments in startups, in R&D projects and diffusion of new technologies.

“We want to stimulate the innovative business environment by articulating entrepreneurship initiatives in the areas of energy and sustainability, expanding the innovation capacity of the supply chain, and implementing a structured ecosystem that will bring very important investments to Rio de Janeiro and the industry power. Everyone has a lot to gain from this initiative that could transform the state into an innovation hub in Brazil ”, highlights Nicolas Simone, director of Digital Transformation and Innovation at Petrobras.

Program 

Annually, REAP selects up to eight regions of the world for a two-year training program. Upon completing the program, the group members are committed to disseminating knowledge in the selected region, which becomes part of REAP Global. The program is divided into four phases: diagnosis, elaboration of the action strategy, implementation of the actions and support strategy.

The selected project must engage, from the submission of the proposal for selection, all the actors foreseen by the methodology: universities, corporations, government, entrepreneurs and venture capital investors, also known as venture capital or entrepreneurial capital. The registration of the state of Rio de Janeiro to participate in the program was led by Coppe / UFRJ, through the Technological Innovation Laboratory (LabrInTOS).

Upon joining the project selected by MIT, Petrobras will optimize its investments in R&D and Innovation, seeking to leverage the implementation of technologies in the energy value chain, through integration with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

In 2019, Petrobras' investment in the R&D area was US $ 576 million. The Rio de Janeiro region is one of the company's main investment poles in innovation and has a large concentration of public and private research centers.