ABSTRACT
This chapter offers as a basic premise that the major international space programmes use partnerships and promote cooperation between various agents involved with the National Innovation Systems (NIS) to support space missions. Supporting the main social actors of the NIS – universities, R&D institutes, and private companies – would help Brazil to achieve technological independence. The US NIS was formed in a decentralised economic and institutional environment, with the private sector and the universities operating with autonomy. Without federal control, industrial research grew in industrial laboratories which initially aimed at the analysis of materials and quality control, although the industries went on to create central laboratories for long-term research, keeping regional laboratories for development. Finally, the chapter presents case studies that discuss some partnership projects from the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) and various Brazilian institutions, among them universities and R&D institutes.
