BNDES Funtec

BNDES Funtec — EMBRAPII/SENAI)

Funds Brazilian firms through partnerships for applied innovation with national institutions.

BNDES Funtec — Fundo de Desenvolvimento Técnico-Científico — is the non-reimbursable R&D financing instrument of the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), Brazil's federal development bank. The program provides apoio financeiro não reembolsável (non-repayable funding) specifically to Technology Institutions executing applied research, technological development, and innovation projects in partnership with Brazilian companies, in strategic areas defined by BNDES. Its stated objective is to transfer academic knowledge to the market in sectors where Brazilian companies can achieve global competitiveness or leadership, and it requires that funded projects include mechanisms to ensure effective introduction of innovations into the market.

Funtec does not operate through direct calls to companies — access runs exclusively via BNDES's institutional partnerships. As of 2026 the two active partnership channels are the BNDES–EMBRAPII partnership for innovative R&D projects (managed at embrapii.org.br/bndes/) and the BNDES–SENAI partnership for Industry 4.0 projects (in contracting). Companies wishing to access Funtec resources must engage an EMBRAPII or SENAI accredited unit, develop a joint project proposal with that institution, and submit through the partner channel — not through BNDES's own portal. Funding amounts are not published on the BNDES Funtec product page and vary by institutional agreement; the BNDES product page explicitly describes this as non-reimbursable support without a direct open edital.

For companies seeking Funtec funding, the practical entry point is identifying an EMBRAPII or SENAI accredited unit whose technical competency overlaps with the company's R&D challenge, establishing a formal collaboration framework, and co-designing the project scope with the Technology Institution to meet BNDES strategic focus areas. Projects must combine institutional technology capacity with company market-deployment commitment. BNDES explicitly encourages combining Funtec resources with other BNDES financing instruments and programs where applicable.