CORRELATION BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION, R&D, INNOVATION AND PATENTS IN THE FUNCTIONAL FOOD SCENARIO

Abstract

Patent filing is considered an index of a country's industrial development, it contributes to the strengthening of research, innovation and production of technological knowledge, that is, patents are considered relevant indicators to assess the country's ability to transform scientific knowledge into products or technological innovations. Thus, the study aimed to investigate whether scientific advancement, R&D and innovation in research institutions or companies are linked to the evolution of the quantity of patent filings in the area of functional food production. The methodology had a descriptive and quantitative nature, in relation to the study variables, they were obtained as follows: a) Patent variable was obtained from Espacenet; b) Scientific articles obtained from the Web of Science (WOS) database; c) The data on the variables (Innovation Index) were obtained by accessing the countryeconomy.com website; d) The variables (Manufactured Value Added, R&D, High Technology Exports) obtained from The World Bank DATA database. The data collection of the variables began in January/2021 and ended on March 22, 2021. To identify the correlation of these variables, Spearman's correlation coefficient was used, and for a better interpretation of the data and answers, the research hypotheses were analyzed from the scatter plot using the logarithmic transformation of the patent variable. The results and discussion showed a weak correlation ρ = 0.3038 between scientific production (articles) x patent filing aimed at the production of functional foods; positive correlation and a moderate degree (ρ = 0.6413) regarding investments in research and development x patent filing and a positive and weak correlation (ρ = 0.2903) regarding the innovation index x quantitative patents. In the final considerations, it is essential that governments provide the right and necessary incentives to foster the development and dissemination of ideas by the private sector whose objective is to promote a political, economic and institutional environment that encourages companies to invest in science, technology, R&D, intellectual property and innovation.