Promon launches Technology Institute
- 04/04/2007

The main aim will be to hold a nationwide discussion about how technology applied to value chains can have a greater effect on tomorrow’s world

Promon, a Brazilian company founded in 1960 and recognized for its competence in engineering and ICT project development, integration, management, consulting and implementation, has launched the Promon Institute of Technology to foster and contribute to the impartial analysis and discussion of the technologies that will “make a difference” in the future.

The initiative of setting up the Promon Institute of Technology is aligned with one of the company’s principal aims, which is to encourage the development of new technologies for application to value chains in Brazil. The Institute’s core activity is the discussion and analysis of emerging technologies and business models, with particular emphasis on their impact and feasibility in three priority areas: energy, information & communications technology (ICT), and sustainable development.

The Institute is an independently managed nonprofit organization, but will initially be sponsored exclusively by Promon. It has an executive director and a Board of Trustees with five members, three of whom are corporate officers of Promon while two are outsiders with experience in academia and business.

The executive director of the Promon Institute of Technology is Ricardo Corrêa Martins. Paulo A. Fragelli chairs the Board of Trustees, whose other members include Luiz Ernesto Gemignani and Hugo O. Brodskyn, also officers of Promon. The independent trustees are Professors José Fernando Perez and Michal Gartenkraut.

The idea of setting up the Institute originated with the realization that no forum existed in Brazil with the neutrality necessary to conduct an impartial analysis and discussion of the application of emerging technologies, while stimulating the creation and diffusion of knowledge on the subject. “Our intention is to create effective mechanisms for the discussion of technologies that will be used ten or 20 years from now and will contribute to the development of Brazil,” says Ricardo Corrêa Martins.

The Promon Institute of Technology is establishing cooperation agreements with front-ranking universities and research centers in Brazil and abroad. The first such initiative is an agreement with the São Paulo State Research Funding Agency (FAPESP) that includes financial incentives such as the sponsorship of scholarships for selected master’s and PhD students who are working on projects linked to strategic issues in the areas prioritized by the Institute.

The Institute also plans to disseminate knowledge by holding seminars and other events to discuss emerging technologies with an impact on the future in its priority areas. Speakers will be experts from technological research centers in Brazil and abroad and from private enterprise, and the target audience will consist of business leaders, opinion makers, researchers and investors. The first seminar, which takes place in April, will discuss critical technologies for the future of the bioethanol industry in Brazil. Other events planned for later in the year will address issues relating to the technologies that will revolutionize the computer and telecommunications industries, and to engineering for sustainable development. Attendance will be by invitation only for a maximum of 60 people. All events will be held free of charge at Promon’s auditorium in São Paulo.

In addition, the Institute will periodically issue a technical publication on subjects relating to emerging technologies in its priority areas. Some 2,000 copies will be printed and distributed to the target audience for the seminars. The content of this print publication will be posted on the Institute’s website, which besides news and updates on the Institute’s activities will also encourage the creation of discussion forums to exchange views and information as a complement to the seminars.