2019
,
Hecklau, F.
,
Kidschun, F.
,
Will, M.
,
Kohl, H.
,
Prim, M.F.
,
Pavim, A.X.
,
Oliveira, J.E.
The advancing globalisation and simultaneous liberalisation of the markets not only have a tremendous influence on companies in the manufacturing industry, but also lead to new challenges for the research sector. Especially Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) as bridges of basic research and the industry favour technological change on the one hand and increase the competitiveness of the industry through innovative solutions on the other. (Arnold, Clark, Jávorka 2010; Breznik 2015). The resulting high need for technological innovation pushes RTOs to intensify competition for technology leadership in order to sustain market competiveness. In this regard, RTOs must be able to develop technological solutions that translate results from research and science into state-of-the-art products and services. This can only be achieved when technological resources and competences are effectively and efficiently used to build up competitive advantages. (Kröll 2007; Figueiredo 2014; Zehnder 1997) Therefore, the assessment of technological maturity can provide RTOs with information on strengths and weaknesses in their specific technology areas (Kelessidis 2000), on the basis of which technology strategies can be derived to contribute to the development and training of substantial (core) competences (Klappert, Schuh, Aghassi 2011), which in turn improve the quality of unique and differentiating products and services (EARTO 2005). In this context, the aim of this paper is to give an application example of a technological maturity assessment of a Brazilian institutes of innovation within the framework of a technology audit. The organization SENAI (National Service of Industrial Training), which is mainly responsible for vocational training and education with more than 1.000 units spread all over Brazil, started to create a network of 26 applied research units (the SENAI Innovation Institutes - ISIs) in 2012. After the first years of operation and ramping-up these institutes, the headquarter of SENAI and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, under the leadership of the Fraunhofer IPK, jointly started in 2017 to evaluate the technological maturity of the SENAI Innovation Institutes. Within this paper, the methodology as well as the results of selected technology audits that were executed in different ISIs in 2019 will be described.