HABITAT Goes Global

By Rafael Silva, Project Analyst of Habitat.

“Think global and act local” is a motto that has influenced the performance of institutions in recent years worldwide. With business incubators this could not be different. Recently, there have been many initiatives that propose possibilities of internationalization through actions of international institutional cooperation.

These initiatives aim to forge partnerships to provide soft-landing services, a kind of co -incubation service for innovative companies looking to explore new markets. Generally, soft-landing can range from logistical support, such as virtual office services and installation conditions in different countries, access to opportunities for local businesses through the provision of market information, scheduling meetings and facility for participation in events; even specialized support to consultants and advisers for specific topics.

HABITAT, business incubator managed by Biominas Brasil, for example, has been sought by incubators, technological parks and projects from other countries to advance partnerships that foster their trajectory towards incubated companies abroad. There is a perceived intensification of this process and, only in the month of November 2013, representatives from five European initiatives visited the incubator.

International Partners on the Horizon

The first visitors from the project ‘Feeding the Planet’, co-funded by the European Union, is responsible for connecting three of the main European organizations linked to supporting companies in the biotechnology and agrifood sectors to projects and institutions in the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China. These organizations are: the Italian technological park Fondazione Parco Tecnologico Padano, the French research center Agropolis International; and the East Netherlands Development Agency –

The contacts were initiated during the last edition BioParternering Latin America, organized by Biominas Brasil in September 2013. The goal of the mission is to prospect to interested entities strong new partnerships in targeted sectors of the program, seeking mainly to foster bilateral agreements between companies, incubators, clusters and business development support institutions.

HABITAT also received a representative from the Biotechnology Pole and the Ocean Pole of the University of Porto (UPTEC, Portugal) Science and Technology Park. In addition to learning about the infrastructure of HABITAT, interest was shown in starting soft-landing type initiatives between incubated companies and both institutuions. During the visit, an effort for the exchange of experiences and mapping was initiated, which allowed us to identify peer companies in three distinct segments.

One distinctive feature about the incubated companies at UPTEC, which collaborated with the formation of international partnerships, is the internationalization phase that closing the incubation cycle (pre-incubation, incubation and internationalization). In this last stage, it is expected that the incubated companies expand their customer base, they start expanding their business by entering new markets.

HABITAT also received a visit from the vice president of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto that, in turn, is leading a project funded by the European Union and focused on creating a network of contacts in order to foster interaction between incubated and graduated enterprises in Brazil and Portugal and supporting internationalization of their products or services. HABITAT is one of the mapped incubators to participate in the project in which the first phase is expected to start during the first semester of 2014 in five Brazilian states – Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina.

More clearly positioned by the project, leveraged by the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, all these initiatives reflect that the relation between globalization and entrepreneurship and innovation have reached the economic and public policy agendas in developed and emerging countries. At the same time, promising alternatives for strengthening incubated companies arise, mainly regarding the possibilities for technical cooperation and market expansion.

Fonte: Incubadora Habitat