International Association for Management of Technology IAMOT 2013 Proceedings TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER MODELS IN BRAZIL: CASE STUDY OF EMBRAPA AGRICULTURAL INFORMATICS MARTHA DELPHINO BAMBINI MA in Science & Technology Policy at Campinas State University- Unicamp, Technology Transfer Supervisor at Embrapa Agricultural Informatics 1 , Av. André Tosello, 209 - Caixa Postal 6041- 13083-886, Campinas/S.P. ,Brazil . Phone 55 19 3211-574 martha.bambini@embrapa.br VIRGILIO MARQUES DOS SANTOS PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Campinas State University- Unicamp virgilioms@gmail.com Abstract Public companies, universities and other Government funded research centers, denominated here Public Research Institutes (PRIs), generate different research outputs, destined to different audiences, at various economic sectors, that can result in financial revenues and promote social benefits and regional economic development. In this paper we refer to these research outputs as knowledge assets, that can lead to economic impacts. Some outputs are: new knowledge; human-capital building; know-how; technologies and prototypes; intellectual property assets (like patents, trademarks, registered software); knowledge infrastructure that stimulates cluster formation or agglomeration economies; and contributions to regional economic, social and cultural development. In Brazil, to promote the transfer of technologies generated by PRIs one need to cross a sandy path full of obstacles related to intellectual property bureaucratic procedures, lack of market information related to emergent technologies and long contractual negotiations and procedural steps. Considering this business environment, Brazilian PRIs have been conducting several actions in order to strengthen the ability of their Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) to respond to market and regulation challenges. Embrapa Agricultural Informatics, a research center of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) located in Campinas/SP, has been promoting some training initiatives destined to its TTO in 2011 and 2012. Its goal was to enable the TTO team to overcome the difficulties of transferring and commercializing research outputs by employing new business practices such as the Business Model Generation (BMG) approach. The BMG can be employed as tool to assess market potential and define business strategies considering several key-elements such as: target customers, value provided by the asset, distribution channels, relationships, core competencies, partner network, cost and revenues. Through iterative procedures it is possible to build several hypotheses about market strategies to be undertaken which are then validated through interviews with potential customers, partners and suppliers. Important information can be gathered with potential customers, partners ans suppliers and then compared with market conditions collected beforehand, allowing the refinement of the initial hypothesis. V alidation steps can provide real feedback 1 Embrapa Agricultural Informatics, Technology Transfer Department, Av. André Tosello, 209 - Barão Geraldo - Caixa Postal 6041- 13083-886 – Campinas/S.P. ,Brazil . Phone 55 19 3211-5741, fax 3211-57541 martha.bambini@embrapa.br