Pesquisa acadêmica no Brasil: proposta de um modelo heurístico de planejamento

Abstract

Several challenges limit the relevance of academic research in the Brazilian context, structural ones, such as shortage of resources, deficient infrastructure and excessive bureaucracy; or cultural ones, such as low interaction between researchers, low levels of dissemination and knowledge appropriation, and low interaction between academy and the demands of society. Despite recent advances in Science, Technology and Innovation policies, it is perceivable that most academic researches do not produce impactful results to society, either by promoting scientific advances, by generating new technologies and innovations or by improving quality of life in the general population. On this matter, the aim of this thesis is to propose, based on the researchers’ perception, a heuristic planning model that focus on generation of scientific, economic or social value/impact-oriented results, considering the contributions of the Technology Roadmapping (TRM) and Design Science approaches. It concerns identifying heuristics (simplifying strategies) that could contribute to the academic research planning. Therefore, this study addresses the main challenges of academic researching in Brazil, as well as the possible contributions of TRM and Design Science approaches to planning increasingly relevant researches. This research was based on a mix of methods, using qualitative approaches, by means of bibliographic searches and interviewing 16 researchers of a public Brazilian university, and quantitative approaches, on 760 active researchers of renowned public Brazilian universities. The results point that five main dimensions could favor academic research planning: (i) identification and evaluation of the demands of society, (ii) identification of previous knowledges, (iii) artifacts planning, (iv) required resources planning, (v) management style aimed at collaborative working and active leadership. Planning through these dimensions could result on values generation as: generating considerably relevant and innovative researches, improving quality of life in the general population, narrowing the distance between basic and applied researches, improving study and extension activities and obtaining more legitimacy of researches. Once identified the planning heuristics on each dimension, a model was tested by means of structural equations modeling with Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM), which indicated discriminant and convergent validity on the latent variables level (dimensions) and of the indexes (heuristics), as well as presented relevant predictive capabilities and significant relations among the analyzed dimensions. Consecutive to the estimation of the heuristic planning model, the validation of this model was performed on an independent sample, being proved its predictive capacity. The results contribute to the adoption of new academic research planning practices, especially on research groups level, allowing for new insights on the importance that academy take demands of society into consideration to develop increasingly relevant researches that are able to generate greater scientific, economic and social impacts.