As atividades de pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&D) realizadas nos institutos públicos de pesquisa (IPPs) têm como característica uma gestão arraigada nas premissas acadêmicas, que priorizam a geração e difusão do conhecimento. Em contrapartida, a necessidade de competitividade tecnológica no mercado e a pressão pela participação, como instrumentos da política pública do esforço nacional rumo à inovação, têm pressionado os IPPs para a busca por resultados mais concretos. Esse fato acarreta a geração de grandes lacunas nos processos relacionados à gestão, induzindo a uma constante necessidade de aperfeiçoamento gerencial, no sentido de criar e melhorar ferramentas que contribuam para adequá-la à nova realidade. Este artigo propõe uma metodologia de gestão de projetos de P&D, que se baseia no direcionamento dos projetos de pesquisa para a obtenção de produtos, e considera suas características multidisciplinares e interdisciplinares e a incerteza inerentes a esse processo. Essa metodologia foi desenvolvida no Instituto de Tecnologia de Fármacos da Fiocruz e é proposta como um modelo original para instituições semelhantes.

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A Ciência no uso de produtos naturais para controle do vetor do vírus Zika (ZIKV).O vírus Zika (ZIKV) é um arbovírus emergente (família Flaviviridae, gênero Flavivirus), originalmente transmitido na África, que esta se dispersando rapidamente pelas Ilhas do Caribe e ao longo da América Central e do Sul

The cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) has been associated with a number of biological activities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the insecticidal potential caused by CNSL from Anacardium occidentalle L. (Anacardiaceae) upon Aedes aegypti and verify histomorphological alterations in the larval midgut. The experiments were carried out using third instar A. aegypti larvae, exposed to CNSL at different concentrations. After 24 h, the larvae were treated and stained with hematoxylin-eosin (HE). Morphometric analyzes were performed on the A. aegypti larvae midgut and registered by photomicroscopy. Anacardic acid was identified in CNSL by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and showed 69% purity. The minimum concentration of CNSL that promoted mortality of A. aegypti larvae (LC 10) was 0.01 mg mL-1 ; the LC 90 was 0.139 mg mL-1 and the LC 50 was 0.07 mg mL-1. Changes in the midgut were severe in larvae treated with CNSL, especially at concentrations of 1.0 to 0.01 mg mL-1 ; degeneration of the lining, hypersecretion of epithelial cells, increased vacuoles, and separation of the epithelial cells from the basal membrane, and disintegration of the brush border and damage of the peritrophic membrane occurred. CNSL caused damage to the midgut of 3 rd instars of A. aegypti by irreversibly disrupting their complete larval development.

Brazil is a major producer of food, fiber and renewable energy, having great importance for the world's food security. The country has substantially invested in Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) in the last four decades and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) has been coordinating this effort. This study aimed to explore the association between centrality measures for research networking and the generation of innovations by Embrapa research centers and their partner institutions. The study analyzed patent applications from Embrapa between the years 1980 and 2009. The methodological techniques applied were social network analysis, correlation and simple linear regression. Results indicate that the greater centrality in research centers networks of Empraba were associated with higher levels of innovation. Results also evidenced the importance of networks, such as the National Agricultural Research System (SNPA, in portuguese), on generating innovation for agriculture. These findings suggest that public policies promoting agricultural innovation should be designed to strengthen collaboration among institutions and not only with individual scientists.

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Purpose-Most research and development (R&D) activities in Brazil are performed by science and technology institutions (STIs). The purpose of this research was to determine whether environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) developed by these organizations were transferred to companies, either through cooperation during research or through mechanisms such as licensing agreements or spin-offs. Design/methodology/approach-In total, 1,939 research groups and 702 patent registers, identified from the same set of words related to ESTs, using semantic search in open-access databases, covering a period from 2005 to 2014, were examined. The two data sets (patents and research groups) were overlaid, and it was possible to associate inventors' names with researchers' names. Findings-The results showed that only six patents could be related to the 1,939 identified research groups. Of the six patents, only one was the object of a licensing agreement, and no spin-off was identified. Practical implications-This study evidenced that it is necessary to expand the mechanisms of knowledge transfer, directed not only from STIs to companies but also in the opposite direction, given that companies recognize potential market opportunities.