Young Scholars Workshop on STI Policy and Windows of Opportunity

This is a one-day workshop on science, technology and innovation (STI) policy and windows of opportunity, to be held at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), with the support of the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI). The workshop aims to discuss local and national scenarios in STI policy analysis by connecting conceptual developments in innovation policy with contemporary debates on technological change and development trajectories, particularly for Santa Catarina and Brazil.
Please note that this event will be in Portuguese and Spanish (Carlota Perez’s session).

The workshop is designed primarily for early-career researchers, graduate students, and young policy-oriented scholars based in the South of Brazil, particularly in UFSC. Its central objective is to provide students and participants with a structured overview of the evolution of STI policy frameworks while fostering dialogue on how the current socio-economic scenarios opens a window of opportunity for latecomer regions and countries.

The first part of the workshop will offer a conceptual and historical grounding in STI policy. This session aims to establish a shared analytical language among participants, many of whom may be encountering STI policy as a field for the first time or from adjacent disciplines.

YSI Economics of Innovation Group coordinator Dr Arthur Moreira will introduce students to the fundamental structure of the innovation policy scholarship.  The discussion then enters the current debates on the theme, particularly missions and transformative innovation policy (TIP). Dr Carolina Haddad (OECD) will present the TIP framework and discuss its applications.

Building on this foundation, the second half of the workshop will feature a keynote lecture by Prof Carlota Perez, focusing on windows of opportunity, technological revolutions and the role of the state in structural change and development strategies.

Local speaker Prof Pablo Bittencourt, chief-economist of the Industry Federation of SC and UFSC Associate Professor, will conclude the day by providing an overview of the discussion and contrast it to the policy experiences and institutional challenges related to STI policy in Brazil and Santa Catarina.

These sessions are intended to stimulate reflexive discussion on how the most recent developments in innovation studies can be applied and adapted to specific regional contexts.

More information and links at UFSC’s webpage (Portuguese only).

UFSC Photo by Airtonjordani, CC BY-SA 4.0