Barriers and facilitators in technology transfer to the space sector: case study of partnership programs of Brazil (AEB) and USA (NASA) space agencies.

O grau de exigência da sociedade no atendimento das suas necessidades vem aumentando progressivamente, bem como a complexidade tecnológica dos bens e serviços oferecidos. Para se atender a essa acelerada evolução, o processo de inovação tecnológica precisa atingir um nível de eficiência e eficácia que articule todos os atores do processo de inovação em redes de cooperação, pois já não há mais lugar para o trabalho organizacional solitário. No novo cenário, há necessidade de parcerias para que novos produtos e processos atinjam a sua verdadeira utilidade, que é a melhoria da qualidade de vida da humanidade. Nesse contexto, o setor espacial tem um papel de destaque, seja por meio da monitoração climática ou até de equipamentos de medicina preventiva, desenvolvidos a partir de tecnologias espaciais. Assim, o Brasil tem utilizado o programa de parceria Uniespaço, sob coordenação da Agência Espacial Brasileira (AEB), para transferir tecnologias para o seu setor espacial. Com base na experiência internacional dos programas espaciais e do levantamento da literatura, este estudo parte do pressuposto de que a eficácia da transferência de tecnologia (TT) nos programas de parceria pode ser alcançada mediante a superação de barreiras existentes no processo, por intermédio de elementos facilitadores. Desta forma, a pesquisa teve por objetivo identificar os fatores críticos entre atores no processo de TT, a partir de estudos de 05 projetos de parceria do programa Uniespaço. As organizações geradoras da tecnologia foram três instituições de ensino superior e quatro institutos de Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento (P&D), tendo como usuários o Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) e o Instituto de Aeronática e Espaço (IAE). Além desse programa, foi estudado o programa de parceria inovativa (PPI) da NASA, identificando o arranjo organizacional e os fatores que fomentam a TT entre os atores do sistema setorial de inovação e produção espacial dos EUA. O presente trabalho teve como resultado principal a elaboração de dois modelos conceituais; o primeiro focando a TT entre gerador e usuário em termos dos fatores críticos obtidos na pesquisa, dentre eles o nível de maturidade tecnológica, adaptação da nova tecnologia versus a cultura tecnológica do usuário, e capacitações de absorção tecnológica e inovativa, e o segundo modelo como resultado da formação de parcerias e do impacto dos demais atores sociais envolvidos nos processos de TT.The level of requirement of the society in order to satisfy its needs has been increasing progressively, as well as, the technology complexity of goods and services offered. In order to follow this evolution, the technology innovation process needs to achieve a certain level of efficiency and effectiveness, which is able to articulate all players of the innovation process in the network cooperation, in other words, there is no place for solitary organizational work. Partnerships are required to produce new products and processes to achieve its goals and promote a better quality of life. The space sector has an important role, such as the earth climate monitoring and preventive medicine equipments that were developed from technologies used for space applications. Therefore, similarly to other countries, Brazil has transferred technologies to its space sector, through partnership programs, though, sometimes with no success. The assumption of this study was the effectiveness of technology transfer in the partnership programs can be achieved by overcoming the barriers in the process through specific facilitators, and it was based on the international experience of space programs and literature review. The aim of this dissertation was to identify critical factors between players in the technology transference process on the brazilian space sector. The methodology used was based on case studies of five partnership projects and involved both three universities and four R&D institutes in the brazilian partnership program called Uniespaço, which is coordinated by the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB). The NASAs innovative partnership program was also studied, in order to know the organizational arrangement and the technology transfer facilitators between players in the US space sector system of innovation and production. The main results of this dissertation were two new conceptual models; the first was based on critical factors of TT between technology generators and users, such as, technology maturity level, adaptation of new technology versus users technological culture, and the ability of absorbing technology and innovation; the second model was the result of the dynamic of partnership formation and the impact of social players involved in the TT process

Impacts of standardization process in the Brazilian space sector: a case study of a R&D Institute

The Brazilian State, under coordination of AEB (Brazilian Space Agency), has been participating in the national and international space context in several projects, such as: partnership in the construction of satellites (CBERS), participation in the International Space Station ISS, microgravity programs and others. The Brazilian participation in the microgravity projects is fomented through the project, production and launching of sounding rockets, accomplished nationally. Besides sounding rockets, the PNAE (Program of National Space Activities) has as objective to project, develop and manufacture in the Brazilian industry the VLS (Satellite Launch Vehicles). In 2003, during the assembling process of VLS-03 at the launch tower, located at CLA (Alcântara Launch Center), an accident happened impacting in many losses. As result of the accident report, were established actions, and one of them was the implementation of a quality management system standard, edited by ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards) in 2004, in the institute of R&D in charge of VLS project. The standardization adopted was the NBR 15100 (Quality Systems, Aerospace Model for assurance of quality in the project, development, production, installation and services). Therefore, this paper has as objective to evaluate associated impacts with the adoption of standardization in the Institute of R&D.Pages: 40-4