Incepção dos centros de inovação da Ilha do Fundão (RJ): (1958 – 1997)

Abstract

Ilha do Fundão, on the Guanabara Bay, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, is mainly known for hosting the UFRJ Cidade Universitária campus. However, while the campus was being built on the island, research institutions outside the university scope began to install themselves in the vacant spaces. This process culminated in technology park projects encouraged by UFRJ itself, which divided up areas for the installation of research centers for external companies. Here, we investigate how this process occurred by studying the moment of inception of these geographic objects. Inception, a concept outlined by Milton Santos, refers to the process in which the construction of a geographic object, mediated by intentionality, occurs in a given location rather than any other. To examine the creation of innovation centers on Ilha do Fundão, we analyzed the documentation involved in this process and extracted from them the agents, objects involved, the trajectory and description of events. Using the data from the documents, we created a periodization of the spatial process and a chronological description of the agents, objects and apparatus that arise from each inception. This study revealed two very distinct modalities of creation of innovation centers: the first, from 1958 to 1979, which provided the island with technology centers from four different state-owned companies (CNEN, Petrobras, Eletrobras and CPRM); and the other, from 1958 to 1997, which resulted in the implementation of two technology parks (Polo de Biotecnologia and Parque Tecnológico da UFRJ) based on a network of agents from different sectors who saw this model as an economic and technological alternative for development