Institutionalization of Research Administration in Brazil: Some Evidences

The arrangement of different research institutions and partners, including public funding agencies, is mandatory to address the current science, technology and innovation challenges. The access and maintenance of research collaboration networks require high level of competence and efficiency by the organizations. The multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research projects require management and administrative activities to achieve project goals in the expected time and cost, and the Research Administration (RA) professionals can be an important facilitator in the implementation of a governance strategy. The two case studies presented in this article illustrates the creation of RA institutional elements in Brazil that is evidence of the willingness to face the bureaucracy and practical consequences of the disconnection of science, technology and innovation policy actors. The searching for more efficiency and impacting results is directly related to the bureaucracy and transaction costs minimization and the maturity of the STI institutional and governance structure.