Innovation Barueri - Technological development center, research and business incubator

Innovation Barueri (Inovação Barueri – Centro tecnológico de desenvolvimento, pesquisas e incubadora de empresas) was developed to give a space to entrepreneurial ideas that arise among students, teachers, researchers and startups by assisting in the transformation of these ideas into successful businesses. It enables collaborative work of exchange, cooperation, as well as interdisciplinarity, sharing and learning through innovative practices. The center offers equal opportunity for business and income generation by offering advanced training courses and innovative projects in areas such as the Metaverse, 3D Printing, etc.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

The Barueri Smart City project (Barueri Cidade inteligente) is based on the definition that a smart city is one that uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and other means to improve the quality of life, the efficiency of urban operations and services, and its competitiveness, while ensuring that the needs of current and future generations are met with regard to economic, social and environmental aspects. In addition, it is one that is attractive to citizens, entrepreneurs and workers, and creates a safer space with better services and an innovation environment that stimulates creative solutions, generating jobs and reducing inequalities.

Thus, the project brings together more than 20 diverse information and communication technology initiatives, based on the above definitions, to facilitate citizens' access to municipal services by digital means and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of municipal administration. The CIT - Centre for Innovation and Technology (Centro de Inovação e Tecnologia) - has the role of fostering projects, partnerships and general actions that are in line with the above guidelines. The CIT has developed a Technology Master Plan, which contains more than 20 initiatives to be implemented or to expand services in the municipality so that citizens can, in short, achieve a higher quality of life. All initiatives of the Barueri Smart City project are aligned with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Given the importance and relevance of the terms Innovation and Technology, to make the Barueri Innovation Service understood, we inaugurated Innovation Barueri (Inovação Barueri) on 2 July 2020. And we launched the 1st programme of TV Inovação Barueri.

Inovação Barueri - Technological Centre for Research Development and Business Incubator concentrates, integrates and offers a set of mechanisms and tools for the development of scientific, technological and innovation research, while also constituting a space for business-academic interaction for the development of solutions. Among its objectives are providing socioeconomic benefits for society; improving quality of life; leveraging economic prosperity, fostering the use of high-cost and difficult-to-access technologies, encouraging entrepreneurship and the diversified development of creative solutions to the city's problems. Our value proposition stands for the efficiency of work for the sake of public service in favour of the population.

Every project conception is mainly aimed at the municipal taxpayer, since we are a public company and we work with available human resources and financial resources according to Budget Appropriations. In addition, the Innovation and Technology Centre excels in adding values that pass knowledge to young people and adults interested in Information Technology, for personal and professional development. Aimed at technological research that meets the needs of the municipality, educational institutions, industries in the region and residents. It contains a structure that includes:

SMARTLAB: Public laboratory - spaces for creativity, learning and innovation accessible to all interested in developing and building projects
COWORKING: Sharing office space and resources, bringing together people who work not necessarily for the same company or in the same area of activity
PROGRAMME FOR LAUNCHING TALENTS: Develops public and private projects with students and interns from the Technical High School of the Municipal Network (FIEB)
PRE-INCUBATION: Offers tools to support the user's project by helping them identify the feasibility of their project and its development
INCUBATION: In cycles, with groups selected among the pre-incubated, according to the demand of those enrolled
COURSES AND TRAINING: Focused on creativity and learning and for the realisation of workshops, courses; robotics championship, etc.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

In the environment of Innovation Barueri several prototypes and new technologies are tested and deployed. Currently, we have 4 environments in the metaverse (Innovation, Innovation and Technology Centre and AAI - immersive learning environment in the metaverse). We have Artificial Intelligence projects, a 3D Printer and Plotter, which carry out projects daily. We also use artificial intelligence to automatically create posts and videos for our social networks. In addition, we launched courses for the population on Sympla Play. The latest course is on Digital Marketing within the Metaverse, which offers the opportunity for immersive interaction without the need for VR glasses.

What is the current status of your innovation?

The center has delivered 160 innovation projects. After the implementation of the project there has been a constant effort to identify possible improvements and additional functionalities in response to the users' perception.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

Partnerships are at the core of Innovation Barueri, as through them the center aims to generate employability in the city. Partnerships allow for the participants who present the best results to be hired by the partner company. The implementation and expansion of partnerships with educational institutions allow the center to provide advanced training courses. In addition, the encouragement of entrepreneurship in the city through the Pre-Incubation programme of ideas was only possible because of the establishment of partnerships.

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

Innovation Barueri aims to be at the heart of creativity and learning in the field of innovation, for this, we have a space reserved for the realisation of various types of events that can be developed in our space or in external places. The center's space is open for visitation, robotics championships, lectures and hackathons. In addition, it offers courses, programmes, acceleration of startups related to technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

A survey carried out in September 2022 counted 160 Innovation projects, including: innovators, resources, pre- Incubations, startups, augmented reality projects, 8 awards received in less than 3 years of the project, among others.

Challenges and Failures

Due to the issues inherent in the pandemic, the projects under development and many new ones were developed using agile methodology through the use of task board tools shared with the team. Even without the ideal scenario, the work in progress was carried out and new projects were developed, such as the entire infrastructure of TV Inovação Barueri (logo, opening and closing vignettes of programmes and courses, availability of training courses, among others). Tv Inovação Barueri was ready and started operating in less than a month with the development of trainees from the Talent Development Programme. In fact, the first broadcast was fully operated by the team of trainees. The results displayed and the timeframe in which the work was carried out clearly demonstrate the exponential speed of this change.

Conditions for Success

According to Decree 9.351, of 21 July 2021, which provides for the creation of Innovation Barueri, to carry out the projects we partner with public and private institutions to obtain substantial resources, which fund the projects and also donations of inputs such as equipment (3d printer), advanced training courses, materials for production, among others. Our motto is to do more with less, generating benefit for all parties. We develop specialised and advanced quality courses and consequently generate qualified labour for the labour market, contributing to the strengthening of the technology and entrepreneurship sector in the region. The Innovation and Technology Centre is an award-winning institution that and we also have international recognition: GHFS - Global Human Innovation Model.

Replication

This project was developed to foster socio-economic development and entrepreneurship in the city. The results of Barueri City Hall's investments in job creation, workforce training, welcoming the most vulnerable population, technological innovation, in addition to taking care of the municipality's financial health have been recognised. Barueri is ranked first in all of Brazil in the 2022 Competitiveness Ranking, for the third consecutive year. The success of the project is not only characterised by its awards but also by the demand from the population and companies to enter into partnerships. There is an ongoing study to expand the project in the municipal Ganha Tempo.

Lessons Learned

Holding feedback meetings with key stakeholders some time after the implementation of the project or one of its phases/modules has contributed to identifying possible improvements and additional functionalities that only came to be externalised/perceived by users once they started using the project's products and services. This allows us to identify gaps quickly and take actions to remedy them, to maintain trust, commitment and satisfaction. Neglecting the best practices mentioned because of pressure from higher levels of the organisation for more "agility" and to start the execution steps soon has caused precisely the negative effects that these strategies propose to avoid. In other words, not taking shortcuts, not skipping steps and considering the good practices listed here are the greatest lessons learnt by the CIT team in all the years of its existence.