Planning, executing and concluding public research and development (R&D) programs: an agenda for funding institutions

Investments in Research and Development (R&D) are fundamental to a country's economic prosperity, since they provide access to the frontier of knowledge, product development, and commercialization, among others. From 2004, Brazil, aiming to increase the competitiveness of national companies, launched an institutional and financial apparatus to support innovation, being instituted in this context, the grants for innovation, this means, the public investment of non-reimbursable resources directly in companies for the development of innovative activities. The institution responsible for the grants for innovation in Brazil is Finep, which relies on the partnership of state governments, usually through the Foundation Support for Research. (FAP's), for the program to reach a wider extension in the national territory. The general objective of this article is to propose an agenda to improvements FAP's in the procedures of planning, execution and conclusion of supported projects.