Brazil MCTI/FINEP launch BRL 300 million economic-subsidy call for national defence and defence-industrial-base innovation

Mechanism

MCTI and FINEP opened a public call (chamada pública) under the "Mais Inovação Brasil" program's second round, directing BRL 300 million in non-repayable economic-subsidy funding — drawn from the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT) — toward Brazilian companies developing new products, processes or services for the defence sector. Applicants choose between two thematic lines: "Tecnologias para Defesa Nacional" (National Defence Technologies) or "Sustentabilidade econômica para Base Industrial de Defesa — BID" (Economic Sustainability for the Defence Industrial Base). The stated policy goals are reducing dependence on foreign defence technologies and expanding cooperation between companies and scientific/technological institutions. Funding is non-reimbursable but requires a financial counterpart from the applicant company proportional to the subsidy received. Submissions are accepted in continuous flow rather than a single deadline, closing when the budget is committed or by the stated cutoff date.

Severity rationale

Severity is set at 2/5 (quant-anchored): the disclosed program budget is BRL 300 million (~USD 56.9 million at announcement-date rates). This is a national, open-call subsidy scheme spanning an entire strategic sector (defence industrial base) rather than a single-company grant, which keeps it above the register's smallest FINEP awards (e.g. the BRL 90m single-company Eve Air Mobility eVTOL grant, severity 1), but the headline volume is still modest relative to Brazil's largest national industrial-policy or BNDES funding-line packages already in the register (e.g. the BRL 2.6bn BNDES/IDB/JICA MSME-health credit lines, also rated 2), keeping this in the low-to-mid range rather than higher.

Downstream implications

• Reinforces Brazil's post-2024 push to build domestic defence

industrial capacity and reduce import dependence, alongside the broader Nova Indústria Brasil national industrial policy.

• Two-track structure (dual-use R&D vs. BID economic sustainability)

signals FINEP is trying to both spur new defence technology and shore up the financial viability of existing defence suppliers.

• Company-level allocations will only become visible once individual

projects are approved under the continuous-flow process.

Open questions

• No individual company or project awards had been disclosed at

filing time; the call was newly opened.

• Whether the required financial counterpart scales with company size

or project type was not specified in the primary source excerpt reviewed.