Financing R&D within the Triple Helix model - locating mechanisms supporting early stages of innovation. : A field study of financing R&D in Brazil

Abstract: As companies are expanding their R&D activities establishing themselves on new markets, they are also encountering opportunities and obligations. How they take advantage of the opportunities and manage the obligations will somehow depend on how they conduct their R&D activities. The existing concepts about innovation processes suggest the need for financial support and more specifically the financing in the early stages of innovation in order to conduct the process. But what they suggest and what is really being carried out differ, whereas this need is not always met. The empirical findings in this study bring the structure of the financial support mechanisms within a Brazilian context, exemplifying how companies established in Brazil can reach financial funding in order to develop their R&D activities. The Triple Helix model is a tool used as a way of analyzing these financial aspects and the existing mechanisms involved. Government, industry and academia constitute the actors within the model, which altogether generate steering mechanisms supporting each actor through the cooperation. How each actor manages the available mechanisms depends on the national system, which requires knowledge and comprehension.