Instituto TIM will support university students in their final semester to create their own technology-based companies. This will happen through the Academic Working Capital initiative, one of the institute’s new features for 2015. The aim is to fund students who are in the application stage of their Final Projects in Engineering and Science programs. In order to participate, students must submit their Final Projects to a panel of experts that will choose 40 of them (per year) to receive expert follow-up.
The selected students will receive financial support for the development of their prototypes and consulting on technical aspects of the development and improvement of projects, business structure and production system models. Consulting will be carried out in workshops (in which all participants will meet in person to carry out joint activities) and by monitoring the entire process of prototype development. The projects will then be presented at the Investment Fair (Open Day), which brings together investors. Public and private universities in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro will take part.
Support to innovation has been considered worldwide as one of the main ways for a country to remain at the forefront and competitive, especially in the science and technology sectors. One of the most important tactics in this support is encouraging the creation of innovative technology-based companies – startups. Brazil has several programs to encourage the creation of technology-based companies, but many of them require that the company is already formalized or rely on having an university graduate on board. Academic Working Capital fills the gap that is not covered by these initiatives, namely the period between the university graduation and the company’s inception.
