Women have participated more in patents at universities – 04/18/2023 – Science

Although the participation of women scientists in patents is still timid in Brazil, this is a common situation in the career of Alane Vermelho, professor at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). Her most recent intellectual property is a natural pigment to be used in cosmetic products such as lipsticks and nail polishes, often colored by synthetic products, some containing heavy and toxic metals.

The concern with carrying out research for the production of clean technologies is old and moves the professor, who already has other patents registered. The new product she created is biodegradable, therefore, healthy for humans and the planet, according to her, and is in the marketing phase.

“As scientists, we have a role to play with society. I have been working with products that do not harm the environment for years. We wonder how long the planet will be able to withstand it”, says the 65-year-old teacher, who says there is an important movement to increase the inclusion of women in patents.

According to Luciana Hashiba, vice-coordinator of the Center for Innovation at FGV/EAESP (São Paulo School of Business Administration at the Getulio Vargas Foundation), patents are instruments for protecting the intellectual property of research or technological projects, which companies can have a commercial interest, so that they are not used by competitors or others without consent.

Alane is one of the scientists represented in an unprecedented survey carried out by Inova UFRJ, the innovation and technology center at the Rio de Janeiro university, which reveals the participation of scientists in the institution’s patents.

According to the show, 87% of intellectual property requests made by the Rio de Janeiro university between 2017 and 2021 have at least one woman listed among the inventors. The university also concentrates the highest proportion of female inventors on patents, 46%, according to an analysis in the same period. Of the total of 816 scientists, 373 are female against 443 male.

The director of Inova UFRJ, Kelyane Silva, says that the mapping was intended to diagnose how women’s participation in patents was at the institution in order to develop more efficient public policies.

“The result was very expressive. More and more women are getting involved, but this field is still dominated by men. So much so that within UFRJ, most scientists are male. But when I look at patents, [em grupo ou exclusiva]the number of women rises to 87%.”

Kelyane gives other information about patents at UFRJ. Of the total of 148 granted in the same period of analysis, 129 had the participation of women as inventors, while 19 of them were composed only of men.

Claudia do Ó Pessoa, a professor at the Federal University of Ceará, who is also a researcher at the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), has four patents with her team granted by the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) in the last year in the area pharmaceutical, with emphasis on products or processes in the treatment of cancer.

But, for her, although the presence of women in science has grown in recent years, there is still a marked difference when examining the female presence in the role of scientific projects and in the innovation process.

In his opinion, this is reflected in the patenting activity, in which the participation of female inventors remains negligible compared to that of men. “The unequal number of patents suggests that fewer women have the chance to develop an invention due to the barriers they face in advancing in the fields of science and technology,” she says.

She continues: “Less attention is given to innovation developed by women in a given area because the business field is mostly male and the participation of female scientists as protagonists in the entrepreneurial environment is inexpressive. Therefore, women sometimes do not feel included as leaders in the process. of innovation”.

At Ufscar (Federal University of São Carlos), in the interior of São Paulo, male inventors also predominate. Considering only professors, researchers, undergraduate, graduate and technical-administrative students with ties to the institution, there are 459 scientists, while 263 are women.

Of the total of 1,529 patent applications requested since 1987 by USP (University of São Paulo) to the INPI, 956 have one or more women among the inventors, a rate of 62.5%, among professors, students and employees.

Luciana, from FGV, states that there are movements to increase women’s participation in patents, but not at the desired speed to have a stronger impact.

She, who claims to have already experienced constraints for being a woman, believes that females face obstacles in their careers, such as the lack of incentives for the technological area, seen as masculine.

Furthermore, she says, many suffer from prejudice and fear instability due to having to take career breaks, as when, for example, they decide to become mothers. “This is all reflected in patents, which are just the end of a chain of education and research.”

UnB (University of Brasília) states in a note that all professors, students and employees of its group of researchers play a fundamental role in the conception of new technologies.

To protect UnB’s intellectual property rights, the Intellectual Property Nucleus protects these technologies in various branches of intellectual property and has more than 700 technologies developed and protected by the INPI (see below for more details on this and other institutions).

Asked about the number of women on patents in the country, the INPI stated that its database does not allow automatic filtering of data by gender, since there is no specific field for this.

But, in a note, the INPI said that it is working on the development of methodologies so that it can, soon, stratify the data in this way. The federal autarchy also highlighted that it makes progress on this issue through the Strategic Committee on Gender, Diversity and Inclusion, established last year.

Check out other universities below:

SOUTHEAST

USP (University of Sao Paulo)
– It has 1,529 patent applications in the country
– Of these, 956 (62.5%) have one or more women as inventors
– Among them are teachers, students and employees

Unicamp (State University of Campinas)
– There are 1,028 men (59.59%) and 697 women (40.41%) who participate in the university’s patents
– Of these, linked to the university, there are professors, students, researchers and employees
– Among the inventors of technologies in joint ownership with other institutions, there are 1,456 men (60.57%) and 948 women (39.43%)

UFSCar (Federal University of São Carlos)
In the two cases below, professors, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, and technical-administrative staff participate:
– Link with UFSCar plus partners from other universities and companies: they are 805 men and 450 women
– Linked only to UFSCar: 459 men and 263 women

Ufes (Federal University of Espírito Santo)
Currently, there are 13 patents granted, all with the participation of one or more women

MIDWEST

UnB (University of Brasilia)
In the three cases below, there is the participation of professors, students and servants:
– Of the 285 national and 90 international patents protected, 589 women are entitled as inventors
– Of the 241 protected computer programs, 239 women sign as authors
– Of the 27 protected industrial designs, there are 40 women

NORTH

UFT (Federal University of Tocantins)
– There are five patents granted by Inpi (National Institute of Industrial Property) and women only appear as co-authors in three

Phew (Federal University of Amazonas)
– There are 16 women with patent registrations, individually or in a team, in 2018, 2021 and 2022

NORTH EAST

UFC (Federal University of Ceara)
– Of 41 patents granted by INPI, 31 had the participation of women, either as main authors or collaborators

Ufal (Federal University of Alagoas)
– Between 2007 and 2023, 13 patent applications were granted to groups of researchers with female co-authors

UFPE (Federal University of Pernambuco)
– There are currently 465 patent applications for invention and utility model, including co-ownership
– Of this total, 374 were made by teams that have inventors in their composition
– Of these requests, 30 Letters Patent were issued by the INPI, of which 20 have women on the team

UFRN (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte)
– In 2022, there were 13 patent concessions, involving 49 scientists (19 women)
– Of these, three had no participation of women
– There were 25 patent applications in the same period (of 124 scientists, 39 were women)

Sources: universities