An Analysis of Collaboration Networks in Bioenergy: : Using the ‘Bioen Program’ to evaluate ethanol biomass

This article analyzes the indicators of knowledge generation in sugarcane biomass. The impact of the FAPESP research program on bioenergy (BIOEN) is also analyzed, with a focus on the division of biomass and its subareas. Using detailed information from scientific articles in the subareas of Enzymatic hydrolysis, molecular markers, delignification, genotypes, enzymatic conversion, gene expression, nitrogen and photosynthesis, an evaluation of the international insertion of research and collaboration networks of Brazilian researchers is carried out. The methodology, which was based on the works of Verspagen (2007) and Dal Poz (2006), consists of the formation of clusters of publications indexed on the ISI Web of Science database. The selection of publications is guided by search queries based on keywords related to the subareas of biomass division. The software programs VantagePoint and Pajek are used to support the analysis of the information. The principle objective of the study is to identify the global incorporation of efforts to generate knowledge and technological progress in sugarcane biomass carried out by BIOEN. It was possible to identify a number of factors that influence scientific collaboration in the area of biomass, such as geographic distance and the dynamics of scientific collaboration between countries. An analysis of the biomass division of BIOEN, from a global perspective, showed little cooperation between Latin American countries. The results illustrate that Brazil generates the greatest amount of scientific knowledge regarding sugarcane biomass, however, when the subareas are analyzed separately, scientific publications from the US and China are also predominant.