The opening, on February 25, and the closing, on June 10, will be broadcast live over the internet – as will all public activities at the conference. The VI CECTI is organized by the State Secretariat for Sustainable Economic Development (SDE) and the Support Foundation for Scientific and Technological Research of the State of Santa Catarina (Fapesc).

“As a state agency responsible for the Science, Technology and Innovation policy, Fapesc seeks to understand the needs of the ecosystem and establish strategies for the development of research and innovation. The State Conference is an important tool for assessing what has already been done, what has progressed over the years, the needs and priorities so that we can establish these State development strategies. The expectation is to involve the actors and decision makers in the different regions”, highlights the president of Fapesc, Fábio Zabot Holthausen.

According to the SDE secretary, Luciano José Buligon, the conference will bring contributions to the Government and to society. “The Government of Santa Catarina, through the Secretariat for Sustainable Economic Development, aims to formulate guidelines and strategies for strengthening the innovation ecosystem, already a reference in the State. In this way, the State Conference will connect actors from the Academy, companies, entities and organized civil society, who, based on their perceptions, will contribute to the construction of structural proposals, for government and entrepreneurship actions in Santa Catarina”.

For professor Amauri Bogo, director of CTI at Fapesc, the conference is a knowledge tool. “The main objective of the conference is to collect the true state of the art of science, technology and innovation in the State of Santa Catarina. In this way, we can continue to collect data generated in previous versions and maintain an efficient database that characterizes what we had in the past, what was accomplished and what still needs to be done”.

Regional meetings in April and May

The conference methodology was developed by the Graduate Program in Engineering and Knowledge Management (PPGEGC) at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). “The model allows Santa Catarina to evaluate their regional CTI systems, in a perception shared by actors from the four propellers of innovation systems: Academia, Government, business sector and organized civil society”, explains Professor Roberto Pacheco, PPGEGC coordinator.

In April, regional meetings will be held to analyze the perception of the actors of the CTI ecosystem in Greater Florianópolis, Serra, South, West and Midwest, North and Planalto Norte and Vale and Alto Vale do Itajaí. At each meeting, 10 working groups will analyze information under eight dimensions of their regional system: institutions, infrastructure, market, regional development, education, science, technology and innovation.

In May, new meetings will be held in the same regions, in the so-called return meetings, where the results of previous meetings will be presented. “We are going to return what was produced in each regional and compare it with the perceptions of the 2015 edition of the Conference, which is essential in this process of co-production of knowledge”, informs Pacheco. This part of the conference will also be public. All meetings will be online.

Comparison power and the Strategic Map

The conference is foreseen in the Santa Catarina Innovation Law, 2008, which was regulated the following year. The last version took place in 2015, with a format similar to this year.

The 2015 conference had a second stage in 2017, in which with the 450 regional suggestions classified and systematized, representatives of 27 State organizations produced a Strategic Map of CTI.

“To this end, regional suggestions were first dealt with in each dimension of regional systems. Thus, representatives of the Santa Catarina institutions linked to the CTI were able to produce a Map with 35 Objectives and 64 Strategic Actions, for each of the eight dimensions of regional systems”, says Pacheco.