Keywords

Introduction

The emergence of COVID-19 emphasizes globally the importance of science, research, scientific knowledge and scientists, looking for treatments, vaccines and tests, in order to diminish the negative impact caused by illness, loss of life, interruption of economic activities and other consequences.

The COVID-19 pandemic finds countries in distinctive and very specific conditions on their historical paths, which allowed for differentiated, more or less effective responses to the pandemic. Factors such as fiscal capacity to leverage resources, innovation structures, communication, production, logistics, social security, education and health systems generated varying degrees of responses to the serious health and social crisis caused by the pandemic (Cassiolato et al., 2021). In the first few months of the pandemic, there were restrictions and a lack of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and other products that exposed vulnerabilities in the global production chains, as well as the fragility of some countries in obtaining domestically the necessary products and other inputs (Shih, 2020).

In Brazil, this issue of external vulnerability in relation to the domestic procurement of supplies and services for the health area was made clear by the COVID-19 pandemic, as there is considerable dependence on the importing of equipment, medicines and other supplies. That dependence extends to serological tests, personal protective equipment and technical equipment such as ventilators and artificial respirators (Sarti et al., 2021). Currently, only 5% of pharmaceutical inputs are produced in Brazil (Santos, 2021). The country has a public Unified Health System (SUS), established under the National Constituent Assembly, following the country’s redemocratization in 1988, through which the population receives healthcare, including throughout the pandemic (Ministry of Health, n.d). Only the upper economic strata have access to the private healthcare system, unless this is provided under one’s terms of employment.

A critical feature of Brazil’s innovation system is that the university, rather than business—as in other OECD countries—is the main locus of innovation, particularly in high-tech fields, at least when measured by patent applications (Póvoa, 2008). A survey of Brazilian industry in 2018, covering a total of 116,962 businesses employing ten or more people, indicates that the innovation rate (Brazilian indicator launched by PINTEC in 2000 that measures the percentage of the number of companies that have implemented product or process innovations on the total number of companies) is 33.6%. The economic recession and the decline in investments in capital goods had a direct impact on innovation activities, leading to a decrease in the number of companies that innovated during this period. The greatest innovation has been in internal processes (14.8%), mainly involving the replacement of machinery and equipment, followed by innovation in both products and processes (13.7%), while innovation in products alone was a mere 5.1%. The distribution of innovation by sector shows that in the service sector, 32% of the companies carried out some kind of innovative activity, while in manufacturing, the rate was 33.9%, and in electricity and gas, it was 28.4% (IBGE/PINTEC, 2020).

In Brazil, the epidemic accelerated the new internal dynamic of the universities, which got under way towards the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, with the approval of several laws and instruments to stimulate innovation, technology transfer and relations with companies to promote innovation. In the worrying new context, with the growth of COVID cases in the country, researchers, research groups, companies under incubation, accelerators and technology parks started getting together to discuss alternatives, within the field of activity of each one, as to how they could share knowledge, work together and try to solve medical care problems.

The triple helix model emphasizes university–industry–government interactions as a key element in the dynamics and processes within innovation systems (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000). The research groups, already observed under a proposal by Etzkowitz (2008), are referred to as “quasi firms” and participate within the innovation ecosystem. They interact with the other participants that promote innovation and transfer technology to society, as well as contributing towards personnel training, the preparation of public policies and the development of spin-offs, among other things. These spin-offs are of considerable importance in the global context of technological innovation. They arise from academic ideas (doctoral theses, master’s dissertations, conclusion papers, scientific initiation projects and other works) and generate knowledge and innovations through the interaction between universities, companies and government.

Incubators are important organizations within the innovation ecosystem and are considered by the triple helix model to be hybrid organizations that traverse the boundaries between universities, companies and governments, in order to assist in the process of creating new companies (Etzkowitz, 2008). These organizations, set up within the universities, had the initial objective of supporting start-ups in their early stages, but over time they began to assume a broader role, integrating themselves into the teaching, research and outreach missions of the universities, which may be considered a transformation from incubator facility to incubator function. Within the academic sphere, these activities include teaching entrepreneurship prior to setting up a company, as well as mentoring about finance and the company growth process through the different formats, among other means of support for newly created companies. In this manner, it became a legitimate part of the third mission of the universities (Etzkowitz, 2021).

Business incubators started to be set up in Brazil in 1986, initially for technology-based companies, but they then took on a great variety of aims and characteristics, including social and local development objectives (Etzkowitz et al., 2005). Today, in Brazil, there are a total of 363 business incubators, 43 technology parks, 3694 incubated companies and 6143 graduate companies, 14,457 jobs in incubated companies and 55,942 in graduated companies (Anprotec, 2019; MCTIC, 2019a), as well as 270 technology transfer offices (TTOs) (MCTIC, 2019b). Incubators have been used as a support structure for S, T & I policy around the world. For example, in China, in 2017, there were 4069 (Xiangfei et al., 2022), while in India there are 520 incubators and accelerators (NASSCOM, 2020) and in the United States there were 1400 (INBIA, 2016).

In addition to their traditional teaching and research activities, universities began to encourage a third mission, in order to contribute more effectively to economic and social development, involving themselves more proactively in the transferring of technology to companies, through spin-off companies and start-ups, as well as creating new organizational structures, such as technology transfer offices, incubators and technology parks (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000; Gulbrandsen & Slipersaeter, 2007). The third mission activities can be divided into two different approaches: the first one non-profit, with social features, and the second one with an entrepreneurial focus and innovative characteristics (Montesinos et al., 2008). During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the aspects studied, albeit in an incipient manner, concerns the interactions between the research groups at those institutions of higher education and the spin-off companies set up during the period, whether they participate or not in business incubation programmes or are located in Science and Technology Parks.

This chapter proposes to address the dynamics created by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on technology transfer from university to society, based on spin-off firms, created by scientific and technological research and initiatives supporting the connections between research teams and spin-offs, to reinforce the university’s third mission. Starting from the changes introduced by innovation support policies and their respective regulations, notable among which are the sectoral funds, the innovation law and the current legal framework for S, T & I, Brazilian universities have become increasingly involved in seeking solutions for national needs in the various fields that transform the knowledge generated into products and services that are then made available to the market.

This chapter is organized in the following manner. Section 2 builds on our review of the literature by presenting a theoretical framework regarding the link between entrepreneurial university and spin-off companies. Section 3 provides an overview of the Brazilian science, technology and innovation (S, T & I) context, including the main mechanisms to promote innovation and technology transfer in Brazilian universities, and discusses the spin-off dynamics created by the responses to COVID-19. Section 5 presents the conclusion and outlines the contributions of this study.

Theoretical Review

Universities have been changing over time, always seeking to develop knowledge and transfer it to society. Diverse organizational structures have emerged to accommodate the required changes, aimed at serving the institutional mission. The model of the entrepreneurial university (that includes, besides universities, research institutes and technical schools) has recently emerged, which, in addition to generating science and technology, establishes links with the market, including the commercialization of its results within the mission of teaching and research, to promote social and economic development (Etzkowitz, 2008).

For the university to become an entrepreneurial university, the path to be followed must be guided, seeking the development of five features: (1) it must have a clear path to follow that is accepted by both the central management and the academic departments; (2) its expansion must incorporate society’s demands, developing tools to promote exchange with social organizations; (3) its sources of income must be diversified to ensure its autonomy and sustainability; (4) its academic units should be the strengthened; and (5) it should have an integrated entrepreneurial culture (Clark, 1998).

One of the main characteristics of the entrepreneurial university is permeable frontiers through which the transferring of knowledge and technology can travel in both directions. On the one hand, professors and students interact with outside sources of knowledge, skills and capital, while, on the other hand, organizations such as incubators, technology parks and other support structures are developed within the internal environment. As a consequence, publications, the training of students, and the creating of spin-off companies become academic productions (Etzkowitz et al., 2019).

Universities have come under pressure from society to increase their social responsibility, with a view to performing activities to improve equity, inclusion and access, as well as contributing to economic and social development in their states and regions (Hayter & Cahoy, 2018). One activity that contributes socially and economically is the setting up of incubators and technology parks and encouraging the creation of spin-offs.

The spin-off firm is a technology-based company created in response to the knowledge produced by the academic sphere, especially entrepreneurial universities. Authors define spin-offs in different ways. For instance, there are spin-off ventures whereby academic researchers alone, or in partnership with their universities, set up a company to exploit and commercialize their R & D results (Etzkowitz, 2008). One of the necessary conditions for the generating of start-ups by universities is the availability of scientists and engineers with suitable qualifications and knowledge of R & D activities (Powers, 2003). The spin-off process is one important means of transferring and commercializing technological innovations (Djokovic & Souitaris, 2008; and Shane, 2004). With regard to the capitalization of knowledge, through the creation of spin-offs, Di Gregorio and Shane (2003) affirm that new businesses founded to exploit university-assigned intellectual property have become a significant economic phenomenon.

The result of a field study, involving interviews with 2052 professors at 50 universities, who work in the life sciences field, showed that faculty members with industrial research support are at least as productive academically and are more productive commercially than those without such support (Blumenthal et al., 1996).

In the social role of the university, the processes of education, research and technological transfer overlap, making these institutions important organizations within the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem (Herrera et al., 2018; Guerrero & Urbano, 2019). Previous studies on entrepreneurship learning methods indicate that entrepreneurs learn in a continuous and incremental manner throughout their working lives. In the context of education at a higher education institution aimed at stimulating entrepreneurial skills and encouraging entrepreneurial behaviour, emphasis should be placed on experimental and discovery-based learning experiences, in order to build knowledge based on practical experience in entrepreneurship and small business management (Higgins & Elliott, 2011). According to Salomon (2007), in research conducted in 2004–2005 into entrepreneurship education in the United States, among the teaching methods used in higher education institutions, higher frequency was observed of business plan development, as well as the replacement of traditional class lectures by guest speakers and class discussions.

The entrepreneurial university develops an entrepreneurial culture in the student, helping them in their professional training, so that in the future they will be able to innovate, transform and produce wealth, grounded in a constant searching for valuable knowledge and the possibility of transforming that knowledge into innovative business. In order to achieve this goal of the holistic training of the individual, the faculty must also be prepared for changes at the university (at undergraduate, outreach, and postgraduate levels), both in the academic context, with changes in the pedagogical content in response to the needs of the job market, and to the new demands arising from society. The management, professors and researchers should form the base of this structure, as entrepreneurial leaders, so that the students can understand the importance of an entrepreneurial attitude, both to themselves and to the world as a whole. This study proposes indicators to evaluate the Brazilian experience of entrepreneurial universities, highlighting a set of activities related to stimulating the third mission: (1) entrepreneurship teaching for undergraduate and graduate students; (2) outreach projects (non-profit); (3) business activities and technology transfer (TTOs, incubators, start-ups, technology parks, clusters, etc.); (4) knowledge capitalization (patents and other intellectual property measures); and (5) university organizational changes, including establishment of innovation policy, intellectual property policy and initiatives to reward researchers and students, among others. The analysis of these indicators allows the identification of gaps, existing problems and successful areas, as well as other factors that facilitate the transition towards an entrepreneurial university format (Almeida et al., 2022a).

The Brazilian ST & I Context

Historically, it has been observed that Brazil has introduced two important public policies: the development of science and technology policies aimed at generating economic and social development, and government initiatives aimed at industrialization.

The establishment of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in 1951 was due mainly to the interest in preparing the country, using its own mineral resources, for the production of atomic energy (Burgos, 1999). The setting up, in that same year, of Coordination for Higher Education Staff Development (CAPES) aimed to ensure the existence of specialized personnel in sufficient quantity and quality to meet the needs of public and private enterprises, with a view to the economic and social development of the country (Martins, 2003). These initiatives were conceived at a time when the country was positioned to set up a policy of import substitution as a development model, with the production of durable consumer products, intermediate products and capital goods, but with the counterpoint of importing technology to enable it to produce domestically, since the replacement activities were carried out through foreign direct investment, whether associated or not with local entrepreneurs, bringing with it the techniques adopted in the respective countries of origin (Tavares, 2010).

Since the 1940s, various S & T plans and legislation have led Brazil to play a greater role in research and innovation in the country’s economic and social development.

At that time, important institutions such as Capes, Finep (The Study and Project Funding Agency) and CNPq were created by law, as well as instruments such as the Science and Technology Development Fund (FNDCT) and Sectoral Funds in S & T. Each of them contributed to the scientific and technological development and economic development of the country, but those within the context of a developing country, with companies in the industrial sector with a low rate of innovation, had limited effects.

Other good examples of public companies created by law that contribute to technological development can be, among others, Brazilian Petroleum (Petrobrás S.A.), which carries out research and applies research in oil exploration, and Embrapa (The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), which does research and distributes the results free of charge, being the main source of knowledge and innovation for Brazilian agribusiness.

The scale of S & T activities grew enormously when the military government came to power in 1964. They introduced an ambitious project for Brazil, seeking technological autonomy in strategic areas related to national security, such as information technology, the defence industry, aviation, energy (oil, nuclear) and telecommunications. A C & T infrastructure was built, with the state deploying and funding R & D institutes and laboratories and supporting research in universities and in state-owned companies. For the first time, research activities were institutionally introduced, as part of a large-scale graduate programme, in public universities and some Catholic universities. Although some good results were obtained, in the development of endogenous technology in areas such as oil (off-shore technologies), telecommunications, information technology and aviation, the design of the technological autonomy was mainly limited to public companies in strategic sectors. The private sector as a whole was excluded and did not benefit from the technology transfers at the universities and public laboratories (Coutinho & Ferraz, 1994). The low level of interaction between Brazilian companies and universities was a consequence of the import substitution policies from 1950 to 1990, which did not stimulate the construction of innovation networks (Meyer-Stamer, 1995).

Following the end of the military government, with enactment of the 1988 Constitution, the universities started to enjoy didactic, scientific and administrative autonomy and independent financial and asset management, as well as the principle of the inseparability of teaching, research and outreach. Nevertheless, with regard to the development of innovation and growth of the university–industry relationship, some obstacles still remained.

The policies of the 1990s, often characterized in South America as neoliberal, led to the privatization of most state-owned companies and dismantling of the related public innovation systems (Laplane, 2015), along with eliminating protectionist barriers and opening up to international markets.

In order to ensure a permanent source of financial resources for innovation, in 1997, the federal government set up sectoral funds, based on a variety of company contributions: a share of the royalties generated by oil and gas production and the revenues of companies in certain economic sectors and from specific transactions, such as payments for the use or acquisition of technological know-how from foreign companies.

The 2nd National Conference on S,T & I, held in September 2001, was an important milestone, as it was preceded by the preparation of what was called the S,T & I Green Book, containing information, analyses, diagnoses and challenges relating to the sector and based on the results of broad discussion, coordinated by the MCT (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation), about the role of knowledge and innovation in accelerating the country’s social and economic development.

The new policies on innovation, introduced by the federal government between 2000 and 2014, have profoundly transformed the country’s institutions with numerous initiatives, including the adoption of a new legal framework and the creation of new public agencies and new approaches to economic development.

The first large innovation policy initiative, enacted in Brazil in 2004, was the Brazilian Innovation Law. Its objectives were to (1) create an environment that is conducive to establishing strategic partnerships between universities, technological institutes and companies; (2) encourage the participation of scientific and technological institutions in the innovation process; and (3) foster innovation in companies. This Law was subsequently amended by the enactment of Law No. 13243 (11 January 2016), known as the ST & I “Legal Framework”, which provides for incentives to scientific development, research, and scientific and technological training and innovation. It should also be mentioned that, as a result of the federal legislation, 18 of the 26 Brazilian states introduced their own respective instructions regarding innovation, through state legislation.

The country’s economic and political crises that erupted at the beginning of 2015 have interrupted the impetus of the adopted policies, with a reduction in the level of direct investment and the cancelling of tax incentives for R & D, which were key measures of the aforementioned policies.

From the standpoint of innovation policy, national plans were developed containing strategic decisions regarding Brazilian scientific, technological and production development, between 2003 and 2016, when President Dilma Rousseff was impeached. Since that time, the role of science and research as stimulators of economic and social development has been disregarded by national public policy makers, with successive budget cuts, criticism of researchers’ work and persecution of those who took a stand against the government guidelines.

After the election of Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018, universities, research institutes and the field of science and technology began to face increasing adversity, with ongoing attacks on science and scientific activity, persecution of researchers and an exodus of young scientists and researchers who were unable to continue their activities in Brazil. In 2020, the government approved a document called the National Innovation Policy, but the document is more a definition of governance and did not define goals, indicators, resources or priority economic sectors.

With the advent of COVID-19 in 2020, federal agencies that foster research and innovation, such as CAPES, an agency linked to the Ministry of Education (MEC), and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), a foundation linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), issued calls to tender, inviting researchers and companies to develop products and services necessary to fight the pandemic.

The current Brazilian ST & I scenario is imposing on the country’s universities a change in organizational culture, particularly in regard to belief in the effectiveness of university–industry–government interaction, as well as the perceived need for restructuring to achieve the new targets imposed by prevailing public policies. Consequently, the universities have been introducing, into their new institutional policies, mechanisms to stimulate innovation, especially those linked to rewards, since they are recognized to be significant producers of scientific and technological know-how and among the leading participants in the process of innovation, thereby contributing to the training of individuals and to Brazilian economic and social development.

Changes in the University Environment Brought About by COVID-19

In Brazil, the COVID-19 outbreak was amongst the fastest spreaders, due to the anti-scientific posture of the federal government, which refused to follow the science-based guidance in responding to the pandemic, refusing to issue national orders to close non-essential businesses and mandate the wearing of masks. The president also criticized the vaccines and avoided buying them when they became available in the market in 2020, while promoting numerous meetings with his supporters throughout the pandemic (Taylor, 2021). During the pandemic, the Ministry of Education, to which the federal universities are subordinated, following the president’s scientific lead, avoided setting general guidelines as to how the universities should deal with COVID-19. The suspension of face-to-face classes, the organization of the work in the university hospitals and laboratories and the setting up of research projects to study the virus all came about as a result of independent action by the leaders of those institutions. In the absence of guidelines or orientation for coordinated action from the federal level, by the Ministry of Education, initiatives were taken at the intermediate level by the institutions of higher education themselves. The public health emergency forced the higher education institutions to conduct internal discussions at different organizational levels regarding procedures to combat COVID-19 and the selection of alternative paths to deal with the problem. This collective discussion was able to create better options for a reaction, thus reaffirming university autonomy. The higher education institutions needed to reinvent themselves, transitioning to online classes and creating new projects to support students, teachers, researchers and other Brazilian people in different fields of knowledge.

Several aspects of the activities taking place in the universities have been addressed in recent publications relating to COVID-19 in Brazil. The research project “COVID-19: Public Policies, Universities, Companies and Civil Society”, mapping out of the activities implemented, and the reorganization of the spaces for innovation, knowledge and consensus have been the object of study. The universities’ activities are divided into seven groups: (1) development of research and technology in support of addressing COVID-19 and its consequences; (2) development of technology in support of frontline personnel in the health system and the production of personal protective equipment (PPE); (3) outreach activities, courses, lectures and the arts, including dissemination of materials about the disease; (4) seeking financial support among students, alumni, civil society and government tenders for research and innovation; (5) support activities for students during the pandemic (psychological, financial, equipment and other support); (6) remote teaching and work organization; and (7) innovative action by incubators and technological park management and their companies (Almeida et al., 2020; Almeida, Plonski, et al., 2022a).

The preliminary cross-study, carried out in May 2020, identified that 64 companies originating from incubators and science and technology parks at different Brazilian universities and private scientific and technological institutes were developing or selling products or services related to COVID-19. Most of these institutions were included in the study cited, finished in 2019, that identified the Brazilian entrepreneurial universities, (Almeida, Liboeiro, et al., 2022b). The study of this phenomenon, with the contribution of innovation literature using the triple helix model, could play a significant role in understanding the complex organizational changes taking place in the universities. The results are presented in Table 11.1.

Table 11.1 Innovative action by incubator companies and technology parks during the COVID-19 pandemic
Full size table

The company survey was carried out using articles about the activities performed by Brazilian universities in their collaboration in the fight against COVID-19, published in magazines and newspapers and on the websites of the universities, incubators and technology parks during the period from March 2020 to February 2021. In this first phase, 150 reports were found. Then reports were selected that cited spin-off companies that used their scientific and technological knowledge, in addition to their laboratory infrastructure, to meet the demands of the country’s domestic market (public and private sectors) (ONI, 2021). Next, the websites of the incubators and technology parks were examined to identify the performance of these organizations and their associated companies in regard to the needs of society and the public and private institutions caused by the pandemic, and interviews were conducted with the researchers and organizers involved in the most significant experiences. It was found that several Brazilian spin-off companies identified business opportunities and mobilized their R & D areas and academic research group partners, many of them supported by the parks and incubators in which they participated, to develop innovative devices to combat COVID-19. It is important to note that the research groups in Brazil, certified by CNPq through “Diretório dos Grupos de Pesquisa do Brasil”, have the autonomy to conduct the production of the knowledge generated by their researchers and adapt them to the demands of society at any time. Thus, spin-offs created from this knowledge will also be associated with these trends.

The ways that companies identify business opportunities, cited by Eckhardt and Shane (2003), are catalysts for change. From that perspective, the pandemic brought about by COVID-19 can be considered a catalyst for change, as it created the need to generate new products and services, such as vaccines, in order to protect the population, but also a need for new inputs and equipment necessary to make patient care feasible, prevent deaths and mitigate the consequences for the patients. In that respect, although tragic, for companies they represent business opportunities.

The most representative cases observed are analysed here.

Interaction Among Researchers, Research Groups and Companies Incubated in Incubators and Technology Parks

At several public universities, the development of products and/or services aimed at the care of COVID patients was observed in projects developed jointly by professors, researchers and spin-off companies. This process in Brazilian universities had already been previously analysed (Terra & Almeida, 2016, and Almeida et al., 2016).

At the Technology Park of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, researchers and master’s and doctoral students got together to develop the CovidScan digital platform. The system, which incorporates image processing and pattern recognition techniques for the interpretation of medical tests, especially radiology tests, aims to support doctors in their decision-making, including remote care. CovidScan has been undergoing testing at the hospital of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a public health institution. Open and reproducible, the system will be made available free of charge to the Unified Health System (SUS). One of the participating companies was developed in LAMCE (Laboratory of Computational Methods in Engineering), at the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Engineering Post-Graduation & Research Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPE/UFRJ), to work in the acquisition, processing and interpretation of geophysical data for the oil and gas sector and mining sector. The COVID-19 emergency provided them with an opportunity to develop applications in the health field, using the existing technology base. To that end, it maintained the existing relationship with the university. The project received financial support from CAPES (COPPE/UFRJ, 2020).

There are a number of initiatives to develop vaccines against COVID-19, involving the participation of public research institutions in Brazil. Vaccines have been produced by public laboratories since the 1980s, but the reduction in public funding that began in 2012 prevented the improvement of the industrial infrastructure, leading the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), which represent the starting point of the industry’s production chain, to be imported for most of the vaccines produced in the country. The public laboratories were left with only the final stages of formulation, filling, labelling and packaging (Fontes, 2021).

In another project, a partner in one of the spin-offs of the Supera Innovation and Technology Park is a professor and researcher at the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine (FMRP/USP). In this case, three companies began development of vaccines against COVID-19. Two of the companies had already received support through PIPE (Program for Innovative Research in Small Enterprises), provided by FAPESP (Foundation for Support to Research in the State of São Paulo), a state government development agency. The vaccine that has been developed, called Versamune®-CoV-2FC, was the result of a partnership between a technology-based company located in the University of Porto Park (UPTEC), in Portugal, a US company and USP, through its Pharmacology Department and Virology Centre, both located at the Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine (FAPESP, 2021; USP, 2021).

The Forming of Networks of Companies to Perform Diagnostic Tests

The ability to form networks to meet local needs reveals the leadership and performance capability of the Supera Innovation and Technology Park, which is linked to the University of São Paulo (USP), the biggest and most important Brazilian university, which set up the Supera Action, COVID-19 project (superação means “overcoming”), whereby, at the initiative of some of the entrepreneurs, the 23 companies in the park got together to perform COVID-19 diagnostic tests on behalf of the municipal public health network. The partners in the companies shared knowledge, equipment and personnel to get the activities started. The fact that the Supera Innovation and Technology Park is run by the Municipal Health Secretary, who is also a professor at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine, certainly facilitated the organization and support of the initiative.Footnote 1 At the start of the pandemic, the municipality did not carry out diagnostic tests for COVID-19, and samples were sent to the state capital, the city of São Paulo. Due to the heavy demand, the results took 15 days to become available to the doctors and patients. The number of local tests performed reached 143,598 in October 2021 (Supera Parque, 2021). The permeable frontiers cited by Etzkowitz (2021) are noted in this example. USP students responded to the call for volunteers to take the exams, yielding a total of 100 volunteers. Although the majority had already completed their master’s, doctoral or even postdoctoral programme, they had the opportunity to improve their knowledge and experience in a business environment. USP researchers were able to carry out research using blood samples collected from patients in the exams, in order to test medications, among other things.Footnote 2

Expansion of Telecare and Services at an Accelerator in a Private Hospital

One of the incubators that stands out in terms of the number of projects developed is Eretz.bio, which was set up for the purpose of incubating start-ups offering solutions and products for the health field. It was founded in 2017 by the Albert Einstein Hospital, one of the most renowned private hospitals in Brazil (Audi, 2017). There are two different incubation formats: face-to-face and virtual. Unlike the incubators at public institutions, there are resources available for accelerating companies. The pandemic changed the Brazilian legislation, which began to allow virtual consultations, while at the same time accelerating the digitization of numerous supplementary services by hospitals, clinics and laboratories. Following this market trend, there has been growth in the companies linked to this incubator that are offering COVID-19-related products and services, from 13 to 19 companies, between May 2020 and October 2021. Four companies from public incubators identified in this survey have also received financial resources from Eretz.bio, while other companies in the first stages received resources from government funds.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the internal dynamics at higher education institutions, transferring the technology from the university to society through the creation of spin-off companies or new products by incubated companies or residents in incubators or technology parks. During the study, 64 companies were identified that originated from incubators and science and technology parks linked to different Brazilian universities and private scientific and technological institutes. Analysing the documented cases, in the light of the theoretical framework, the aforementioned spin-off companies, created from the research groups at entrepreneurial universities, in a time dominated by COVID-19, the companies used academic infrastructure such as laboratories, hospitals and incubators to develop their products (prototyping, testing, etc.); the use of public spaces was also possible due to the Brazilian innovation laws.

Analysis of the most representative cases indicates three characteristics of the internal dynamic in the technology transfer process: (1) interaction among researchers, research groups and companies incubated in incubators and technology parks in the development of products and/or services aimed at the care of COVID patients; (2) the forming of networks of companies providing a service to local government to perform COVID-19 diagnostic tests, in order to accelerate adequate medical support to patients and sanitary measures to avoid disseminating the virus; and (3) expansion of telecare and services at an accelerator in a private hospital, for an accelerated increase in the digitization of processes and services in the health field.

Due to the interaction of the triple helix (university–industry–government), companies obtained financial support from government, primarily from local government, as they sought to meet an urgent demand from society, and from the foundations supporting regional research. Moreover, the academic structures used their local reach to come up with a way of collecting money for the financial support of the projects. Also due to the triple helix, large companies supported the spin-offs by transferring their industrial and management knowledge to speed up the process of placing the products that were being developed on the market.

Partnerships with a number of local companies came about through the identification of business opportunities arising from the major social changes brought about by COVID-19. The companies used their knowledge production capacity in partnership with academic research groups to quickly develop the required products, taking advantage of the technological leap that occurred as a result of the production of this new knowledge. In the cases mentioned, one can see product innovation, process innovation and organizational innovation to serve society, leading inevitably to an increase in the quality of life of the Brazilian population.