Nanoterra reinforces competitiveness, industry, and bioeconomy agenda through participation on the CNPq Deliberative Council

Goiania, October 2026 — The ability to transform scientific knowledge into technology, production, and new businesses will be increasingly decisive for the competitiveness of Brazilian industry. It is within this context that Iara Mendes Maciel, founder and Executive Director of Nanoterra, joins the Deliberative Council of Brazil’s National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) following her nomination by Sebrae. Her two-year term began in September 2026.

For Nanoterra, this participation comes at a strategic moment for the country. Brazil combines one of the world’s richest biodiversities with an established scientific base and productive sectors capable of creating value across multiple industries. The challenge lies in connecting these assets and creating the conditions for research, intellectual property, and technological development to reach industrial scale, contributing to higher value-added products, skilled jobs, and new businesses.

This is also one of the principles guiding Nanoterra’s work. Based in Goiás, the company develops nanobiotechnology solutions designed to transform active ingredients from Brazilian biodiversity and by-products from local supply chains into nanoactives for industrial applications, initially focusing on the cosmetics market. Its technology platform integrates nanostructuring, physicochemical characterization, stability, formulation application, and scale-up. The company’s approach is based on the understanding that sustainability and biodiversity should be associated not only with the origin of raw materials, but also with the creation of knowledge, technology, and value throughout productive value chains.

In this sense, the bioeconomy represents an opportunity for industrial development. Brazilian raw materials can give rise to ingredients, processes, technologies, and intellectual property with applications in more sophisticated markets. Nanoterra’s own impact strategy connects biodiversity conservation, the development of local supply chains, technological efficiency, and the use of by-products with the creation of higher value-added ingredients.

For this potential to become competitiveness, however, the journey must go far beyond scientific discovery. Research infrastructure, talent development, long-term financing, intellectual property protection, validation, scale-up, and connections with industry are all part of the same agenda. Deep tech companies — businesses built around complex scientific technologies — experience this journey directly and can serve as a bridge between knowledge generated at universities and its application across productive sectors.

CNPq occupies a central role in this structure. In 2025, the institution reported BRL 2.8 billion invested in research funding, in addition to approximately 107,000 active scholarships and 16,000 ongoing projects. Its Deliberative Council is the organization’s highest policy-making body and participates in defining funding guidelines and reviewing its budget programming.

The connection between research and the productive sector is also part of CNPq’s activities. Programs such as RHAE support the placement of researchers within companies and the development of corporate innovation projects. In a recent call, more than BRL 68 million was allocated to 248 projects, highlighting the importance of instruments capable of connecting highly qualified professionals with the technological needs of industry.

“A more competitive industry depends on our ability to transform knowledge into technology and technology into production. Brazil has biodiversity, researchers, and scientific expertise. The challenge is to build more effective bridges between these assets, companies, and the market. The bioeconomy offers us a particularly important opportunity to do this by creating value from conserved biodiversity and strengthening Brazilian value chains,” says Iara Mendes Maciel.

Nanoterra believes that strengthening Brazil’s bioeconomy requires an environment in which universities, companies, funding institutions, investors, communities, and industry can operate in a complementary way. Competitiveness will depend not only on the availability of natural resources, but on Brazil’s ability to research, develop, protect, manufacture, and scale technologies derived from those resources.

For the company, its founder’s participation on the CNPq Deliberative Council represents an opportunity to contribute to this discussion from the perspective of someone who experiences technological development from the business side as well. It is an agenda that connects science, innovation policy, and productive development — and that can help Brazil transform its scientific capabilities and biodiversity into industry, innovation, and long-term value creation.