Catalyze -- funded in part by the US Department of Energy and managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory -- documents six of ten US-Brazil Innovation Learning Laboratories that the Council on Competitiveness created in 2008 and 2009 with the Movimento Brasil Competitivo (MBC) and the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI). The core issues of the US-Brazil Innovation Learning Laboratories -- around which tangible partnerships have been forged -- include fundamental research, intellectual property, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, commercialization, and the overarching workforce and economic development environments in both nations.

The Innovation Learning Laboratories in Porto Alegre and Chicago focused on the investment, talent and policy infrastructure critical to ensuring a robust research capacity. The Labs in Sao Paulo and Silicon Valley focused on the processes and people that would push and pull research out of the "laboratory" and into the marketplace. And the Labs in Rio de Janeiro and Denver/Golden (at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) focused on the human, organizational, financial and policy models needed for a robust, 21st century manufacturing future in the United States and Brazil.

Flowing out of these US-Brazil Innovation Learning Laboratories -- and documented in Catalyze -- are a series of concrete, bi-national partnerships -- generated by the participants themselves -- to address real needs and opportunities in both nations. Major partnerships under development include: a bi-national smart grid collaboration initiative, and a bi-national co-incubation/business accelerator initiative.