Engrena ita: Alliance for innovation prospection on gear technologies

Abstract

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.Over a hundred million gears are annually produced in Brazil. They are applied to automobiles, wind turbines, aircraft and sugar and alcohol energy systems, among others. Despite the variety of applications, these segments share similar demands for technological solutions within the same economic challenges to investing in innovation. This context engendered the launch of “Engrena ITA”, in 2017, as an alliance among organizations with the aim of enhancing research prospections about gears and power transmission systems. Sharing benefits and responsibilities among its members, Engrena ITA assumes the integrative role established by the Open Innovation concept. The operational essence is the systematic interaction among members, who receive the right of defining guidelines of the gear-dedicated research group of ITA. The fundamental interaction occurs in workshops twice a year. Deep technical discussions precede the definition of a priority list of research topics to be prospected. The top priority is taken to further discussions on the scope content, and its generated project proposal is submitted either to government calls or to a pool of companies. The first year of operation, executed as a pilot plan, joined 24 companies of the segment, from tooling developers to OEM’s. In one year, 15 projects were prospected, involving 29 organizations worldwide. Projects were prospected on a partnership basis, involving Brazilian and foreign research institutes. The systematic integration which drove new ideas creation is now the basis for the initiative’s continuity and for multiplying the model to further technologies.

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