• Highlights

• In 2024, the innovation rate of industrial companies with 100 or more employed persons in Brazil was 64.4%, the third consecutive drop and the lowest rate since 2021 (70.5%).
• The innovation rate was higher in larger companies, reaching 75.4% in companies with more than 500 employed persons.
• The sector of Manufacture of chemicals (84.5%) led the innovation ranking among industrial activities, followed by Manufacturing of electrical machines, apparatus and materials (82.1%) and Manufacture of furniture (77.1%). Manufacture of tobacco products (29.8%) was the least innovative sector.
• Among companies that innovated in products, 45.2% introduced a new or substantially improved product, the lowest percentage since 2021 (50.5%).
• Among the companies that innovated in business processes, 51.9% introduced a new or improved business process, a higher percentage than that observed in the previous year (51.0%).
• In 2024, 32.9% of companies invested resources in internal R&D activities, the lowest percentage since 2021 (33.9%). In the sectors of Manufacture of pharmochemical and pharmaceutical products, Manufacture of chemicals, Manufacture of computer equipment, electronic and optical products and Manufacture of other transportation equipment, the rate exceeded 50%.
• R&D spending in 2024 was around R$39.9 billion, a value higher than that seen in 2023 (R$38.2 billion) in nominal terms.
• Innovative companies in the Manufacturing industry were responsible for 85.4% of this value (R$34.1 billion) and those in the Mining and Quarrying industries, for 14.6% (R$5.8 billion). In absolute values, there was an increase in expenditure in both the manufacturing and mining industries.
• Innovative companies used more public support in 2024 (38.6%) compared to 2023 (36.3%). The proportionally most used public support instrument in 2024 was the tax incentive for research and development and technological innovation (28.9%).
• Suppliers appear as partners of 27.1% of innovative companies that cooperated in 2024.
• Basic metals recorded the highest percentage of companies with innovation partnerships, 47.8%.
• The expectation of 96.4% of innovative companies for 2025 is to increase or maintain R&D spending.

In 2024, the innovation rate of industrial companies with 100 or more employed persons in Brazil was 64.4%, a value that represents the third consecutive drop in the indicator since the beginning of the series, in 2021. That percentage refers to the companies that introduced a new or substantially improved product and/or incorporated a new or improved business process into one or more business functions. The 2024 index is 0.2 percentage points lower than that seen in 2023 (64.6%) and 6.1 percentage points lower than that of 2021 (70.5%).

The data released today (19) by the IBGE are from the Semiannual Survey of Innovation (PINTEC) 2024: Basic Indicators, an experimental survey carried out in partnership with the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). This edition brings information on aspects of the innovative behavior of companies, difficulties and obstacles to innovation, cooperating arrangements established, accomplishment and amount of expenditure in Research and Development (R&D), evolution and expectations on the accomplishment of activities and expenditure in R&D by companies, and public support to innovation.

According to Flávio Peixoto, an analyst at PINTEC, the innovation rate in 2024 was stable compared to 2023 and large companies continued to be relatively more innovative.

“Factors such as exchange rate and gross fixed capital formation (investment) influence the rate, but innovation itself is a dynamic phenomenon that sometimes needs a long maturation period. So, we have a moment in which a large percentage of companies are innovative and, in the following year, they do not necessarily stop being active in innovation, they just did not introduce an innovative product or process that year, but they continue to be active in innovation,” explains him.

The most innovative sectors in terms of product and/or business process in 2024 were Manufacture of chemicals (84.5%); Manufacture of electrical machines, apparatus and materials (82.1%); Manufacture of furniture (77.1%); Manufacture of computer equipment, electronic and optical products (76.8%); and Manufacture of pharmochemical and pharmaceutical products (76.6%).

Detailing the type of innovation implemented, in 2024, 32.7% of companies innovated in both products and business processes; 12.5% ​​innovated only in product and 19.2% innovated only in business process, the only segment that grew compared to 2023, with an increase of 2.6 percentage points.

Innovations in business processes were the majority in 2024 and the percentage of companies that innovated in this way increased.

Companies were more innovative in business processes (51.9%) than in products (45.2%). As for the sectors, there is an inversion, only the Manufacture of chemicals (65.9%) was more innovative in processes, while the others were more innovative in products: Manufacture of electrical machines, apparatus and materials (69.5%), Manufacture of furniture (59.0%), Manufacture of computer equipment, electronic and optical products (61.1%), and Manufacture of pharmochemical and pharmaceutical products (67.5%).

“Innovation in business processes is always greater than product innovation. Companies engage in several processes to arrive at innovations during this period. Business processes are broader, ranging from the production itself, the transformation of inputs into products, to the management part, which includes accounting, administration, personnel management, marketing and the use of IT,” explains Peixoto.

In 2024, the number of companies that introduced a new or improved business process increased (51.9%), a higher percentage than that observed in 2023 (51%). The main category of business innovation was work organization, decision-making or human resources management methods, with an innovation rate of 31.8% in 2024, corresponding to an increase of 0.1 percentage points compared to 2023. On the other hand, the methods for information processing or communication category recorded the largest relative increase in the proportion of innovative companies, with an increase of 1.7 percentage points compared to 2023.

Regarding companies that innovated in products, the survey shows that 45.2% of them introduced a new or substantially improved product in 2024, the lowest percentage observed since 2021 (50.5%). Among the economic activities, the companies that innovated the most in terms of products were: Manufacture of electrical machines, apparatus and materials (69.5%), Manufacture of pharmochemical and pharmaceutical products (67.5%), Manufacture of chemicals (64.4%) and Manufacture of computer equipment, electronic and optical products (61.1%).

According to Peixoto, historically the product is more susceptible to negative impacts, which is why it is more difficult to innovate in a product than in a business process: “A product is more complex to design than a process, because for a new product it is necessary to change functional characteristics regarding its use, raw materials, software. Furthermore, products are more affected by the exchange rate because it is sometimes cheaper to import products, which discourages innovation. Products also require more robust knowledge, learning to arrive at technologically advanced products.”

Regarding innovations according to the degree of novelty of the main innovation, 71.1% of the products were new only for the company itself, a percentage higher than that observed in 2023 (68.0%). On the other hand, the proportion of new products for the world market also increased, changing from 4.4% in 2023 to 4.9% in 2024. In the same period, the proportion of new products for the national market fell from 27.6% to 24.0%.

Large companies were more innovative

The Semiannual PINTEC showed that innovation rates remain proportional to the size of companies, considering the range of employed personnel. Smaller companies (100 to 249 employed persons) had a lower innovation rate (59.8%) than that observed in the range of 250 to 499 employed persons (65.7%), which, in turn, was lower than that of companies with 500 or more employed persons (75.4%).

Despite the drop in the general rate of innovation and the reduction in innovative companies, investment in R&D grew in 2024

The total investment in Research and Development (R&D) made by innovative industrial companies with 100 or more employed persons in 2024 was R$39.9 billion, a value 4.4% higher than the previous year in nominal terms. Innovative companies in the Manufacturing Industry were responsible for 85.4% of this value (R$34.0 billion) and those in the Mining and Quarrying Industries, for 14.6% (R$5.8 billion). In absolute values, both industries increased their expenditure.

According to Peixoto, R&D is not synonymous with innovation, but an activity carried out by companies to achieve product and/or business process innovations. However, he warns that an investment in R&D will not always lead to an innovation. Structurally, it is a group of large companies that carry out R&D in Brazil.

The majority of investment in R&D was concentrated in large companies with 500 or more employed persons (87.4%), a value higher than that found in 2023 (84.6%). Companies with 250 to 499 employed persons also registered an increase in the percentage of investments in R&D, going from 7.5% in 2023 to 7.8% in 2024, but with a reduction in the proportion of companies in this range. In contrast, the distribution of investments in R&D among companies with 100 to 249 employed persons fell, going from 7.9% in 2023 to 4.8% in 2024.

Of the total investment in R&D made in 2024, 86% was financed with resources from the companies themselves, 8% was financed with resources from the public sector, 5% was financed by a private institution, while only 1% was financed with resources from abroad.

The activities that stood out the most in the distribution of investments in internal R&D activities were: Mining and quarrying industries (14.6%), Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (13.6%), Manufacture of pharmochemical and pharmaceutical products (12.3%), Manufacture of coke, petroleum products and biofuels (11.9%) and Manufacture of food products (8.2%), which together represented more than 60% of the total expenditures in 2024.

Public support was most used by innovative companies in 2024

Public support mechanisms were most used by innovative companies in 2024. In total, 38.6% of them used some assistance instrument for their innovative activities, a higher proportion than that recorded in 2023 (36.3%).

As in previous years, the most proportionally used mechanism was the tax incentive for research and development and technological innovation, provided for in the Lei do Bem (Good Law) (Law no 11,196/2005). In 2024, this instrument covered 28.9% of innovative industrial companies with 100 or more employed persons.

Larger companies remained the ones that most used this incentive, although with a slight reduction in participation between 2023 (47.6%) and 2024 (46.4%). On the other hand, there was growth among companies with 250 to 499 employed persons, rising from 27.6% to 35.6%, and among those with 100 to 249 employed persons, whose share increased from 16.6% to 17.9% in the same period.

The assessment of “very adequate” was given by more than half of the innovative companies for all the evaluation criteria of this instrument, with emphasis on the ‘Availability of information’ category, with 61.5% in 2024, although it decreased compared to 2023 (63.2%).

In 2024, the highest proportion of companies was recorded that, although they had not used the tax Incentive for R&D and Innovation, expressed an interest in doing so. This indicator reached 31.5%, above the results of 2023 (29.7%) and 2022 (31.2%).

In turn, the proportion of innovative industrial companies with 100 or more employed persons that did not use this instrument and had no interest in using it reached a minimum level in 2024 (68.5%), compared to the years 2023 (70.3%) and 2022 (68.8%).

Larger companies cooperated more than smaller ones

In 2024, more than half of innovative companies with 500 or more employed persons established some type of innovation partnership (50.3%).

This percentage was significantly higher than that observed among companies with 250 to 499 employed persons (30.1%) and among those with 100 to 249 employed persons (24.5%).

The main partners of the companies that cooperated were suppliers, which represented 27.1% of the total. Among the industrial activities, basic metals recorded the highest percentage of companies with innovation partnerships (47.8%).

Economic instability, low demand attractiveness and difficulty in establishing partnerships were the main obstacles for innovative companies

In 2024, 47.8% of innovative companies reported having faced obstacles to innovating, with a higher incidence among medium-sized companies (53.3%). Economic instability was the main obstacle (44.5%), followed by the limited capacity of internal resources (43.0%), increased competition (42.1%), changes in strategic priorities (39.5%), low demand attractiveness (37.9%), technological limitations external to the company (35.9%) and difficulty in establishing partnerships (35.7%).

Among companies not active in innovation – those that did not innovate in products or processes and that did not have incomplete or abandoned projects – 26.1% declared having faced difficulties in innovating in 2024.

Almost all companies expect to increase or maintain investment levels in research and development

For 2025, 96.4% of companies declared their intention to increase or maintain expenditure on R&D, compared to 2024. For 2026, based on expectations for 2025, this proportion increases to 98.5%.

Regarding size, it is observed that the smaller the company, the greater the expectation of maintaining investments in R&D. For 2025, considering expenditures from 2024, 71.7% of companies with 100 to 249 employed persons expected to maintain their investments, while among companies with 250 to 499 employed persons this proportion was 56.1%, and among those with 500 or more employed persons, 54.2%.

More about the survey

An experimental survey, carried out in partnership with the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), that investigated mid and large companies - above 100 employed persons - of the manufacturing and mining industries. The survey aims at portraying innovation in Brazil, raising information related to business investments in science, technology and innovation in Brazil.

The Semiannual PINTEC is annual (relative to the year before the data collection), with two semiannual investigations. In the first semester, rotating thematic indicators are investigated and, in the second one, basic indicators of innovation and R&D. Its objective is to complement the traditional IBGE Survey of Innovation (PINTEC) – with seven editions already carried out broadly every three years, since 2000.

PINTEC becomes triennial again

After seven cycles, the semiannual PINTEC project ends with the 2024 release. “We created a very specific dynamic aimed at companies in the industry with 100 or more employed persons, with a smaller and very specific questionnaire. Now we are returning to the triennial PINTEC, whose data collection should begin in May this year. It will be a much larger questionnaire that will cover, in addition to R&D, other innovative activities, with a broader look at products and processes,” says Peixoto.

The survey will investigate new topics: environmental innovations, innovative practices and strategies, use of advanced technologies and intellectual property. The sample will cover companies with ten or more people employed in the industry and also in some services such as telecommunications, IT, publishing, architecture and engineering, R&D, and electricity and gas.