Historical Background

It is worldwide acknowledged that materials technology is a key enabling technology for a wide range of industrial sectors, leading to significant qualitative changes in the production cycle - from processing of raw materials to the obtaining of finished products - thus having a major influence on the economic and industrial competitiveness.


The advances in Materials Science and Engineering have made it possible not only to improve the processing and properties of existing materials, but also to design entirely new materials with predictable properties at the atomic or molecular levels, and process them so as to achieve the performance characteristics required for specific applications. The technological impact of new materials on related industries will be continue to be very significant and this is even a more important point than the market size of new materials itself. Innovation in engineering materials has been responsible for major technological advances in recent years and the trends are set to continue into the next century.


The ability to utilize the advanced processing technologies for greatly improved traditional materials and the ability to both produce and use new materials are already recognized as critical for maintaining competitiveness, growth and employment in national economies, not only in specific materials branches but also in an increasing array of high technology and traditional industries. The further development and support of materials technology are so important precisely because very sizable impetuses and spill-over effects on virtually all sectors of the processing industry result from them.


Recognizing these facts, governments in developed countries have, for several years now, initiated large programmes of financial and institutional support for pure and applied research in Materials Science and Engineering. Enterprises are not only engaged in research but are developing technological and product capabilities in a series of materials and sometimes users industries as well.


The emerging Materials Science entails not only the danger of possible displacement of export markets of developing countries, whether of raw materials or finished products, but also the risk of foregoing the potential that now exist to exploit domestic materials to be used to the best advantage. Materials issues today are multidisciplinary in nature and trans-material and trans-sectoral in impact. The central problems of R&D, production and application of new and advanced materials are highly difficult, complex and going across disciplines, specialized institutions, different sectors of industry and traditional approaches to their solution. There is also an abundant scope for applying advances in new materials and processing technologies to upgrade the properties of conventional materials as well as to utilize locally available resources.


The problem confronting industrialization and economic development strategies in the next decades will be how developing economies can absorb and utilize the new scientific and engineering insights and practice so as to upgrade their traditional and existing materials capabilitites to meet higher specifications, quality and flexibility requirements in users markets, national, regional and global, and also to enter the field of advanced materials where feasible and appropriate.


In 1979, UNIDO-United Nations Industrial Development Organization was already committed to its mission as a catalyst in the creation and promotion of the Programme on Technological Advances, aiming to help developing countries to establish their own competencies in the field of emerging technologies through the promotion of regional and international cooperation among the scientific and industrial communities of the various countries.


Since 1982 the concern about the new materials and the consequent diplomatic relations among countries were the main subjects of various meetings and actions led by UNIDO. As a result, two successful projects were immediately supported by UNIDO leading to the implementation of ICS-International Centre for Science and High Technology (Trieste, Italy) and ICMET-International Centre for Materials Evaluation Technology (Taedok, Korea).


In addition, UNIDO has undertaken steps to introduce advances in materials and processing technologies as a key and critical factor for maintaining competitiveness, growth and employment in national economies and meeting the environment control and energy saving requirements in the 1990s and beyond.


In December 1987, the First Discussion Meeting on Advanced Materials for Developing Countries was held in Vienna, emphasizing the importance of establishment of and strengthening national materials technology centres located in developing countries, particularly in improving their capabilities to apply the latest advances in materials technology, to utilize and add value to their own natural resources. The Meeting recognized the value of and the necessity for international/regional cooperation in this respect, and recommended that  "UNIDO promote the establishment of an International Centre for Materials Assessment and Application, for in-depth analysis and promotion of the rational use of materials".


In 1989, an Expert Group invited by UNIDO met in Vienna to discuss the perspectives and strategies of industrialization in developing countries, considering the impact of new and advanced technologies. It was then reiterated the need for the establishment of a new international centre, like IMAAC, which would assist developing economies in adjusting themselves to the fast pace of scientific and technological progress in Materials Science and Engineering.


The Expert Group Meeting on Material Policy Issues (1991, Bangalore, India) also emphasized that the establishment of an international multidisciplinary centre, such as IMAAC, was necessary, feasible and timely. It was also realized that there was no other international institution, which could deal with Materials Science and Engineering with a holistic, trans-sectoral and integrated approach. IMAAC would be the perfect forum and would also perform the functions of protagonist and facilitator for international cooperation, stimulating the conduction of activities, in an interdisciplinary way, related to the application of modern science and technology for the development and rational use of the various materials, based on the available natural and human resources in the developing countries, always concerned with the strategic scenario of sustainable development.


The basic concept and the need for the implementation of IMAAC were highly discussed among scientists, industrialists and governments of various countries, as a consequence of the conclusions and recommendations of the several Meetings (Vienna,1987 and 1989; Bangalore, 1992) stirred up by UNIDO. The Government of Brazil expressed its interest in establishing and hosting the IMAAC, and therefore requested the assistance of UNIDO in this respect.


As part of the definition phase in the establishment of IMAAC, UNIDO commissioned a mission of two experts, who already possessed considerable knowledge and information regarding the needs and circumstances of developing economies in the materials field, to visit selected institutions in Brazil, the United States, Japan and Europe. The mission met with great deal of positive response both at the individual and industrial levels. The urgent need for establishing the Centre was recognized and both the concept and broad aims and functions to be performed by IMAAC received endorsement, and in many cases, strong expressions of support and desire for active involvement and cooperation at all stages of the project.


The findings of the mission were reflected in the Feasibility Study prepared by the experts. It was recommended that a preparatory and pilot activities phase should start as soon as possible to lay the basis for the establishment of IMAAC, to verify the concept, to define its structure and functions, and to develop a long-term work programme. Regarding the location of the Centre, it was suggested that  "IMAAC would need to be located in an area which provides the necessary intellectual and scientific ambience, access to practical engineering and technological developments, and also be surrounded by an adequate supporting infrastructure and telecommunication facilities."  It was recommended that IMAAC should be established in Brazil, and more specifically, in Rio de Janeiro, inside the Federal University Campus, where various R&D institutions are already installed, thus taking advantage of available competencies. CETEM-Centro de Tecnologia Mineral was then considered to be the most appropriate place for IMAAC's installation.


Based on the experts recommendations, and being sure that the IMAAC Implementation Project has a sinergy with other UNIDO Programmes, the concept of this International Centre was continuously promoted, the financial support of its pilot phase was negotiated with the Government of Brazil, and actions have been progressively taken to ensure its self support and maintenance after its establishment. At the same time, the detailed programme of activities for the preparatory/pilot phase of the Centre has been developed and discussed with the Brazilian counterpart.


In May 1998, a Panel of Advisers met at CETEM, in Rio de Janeiro, to rediscuss : the IMAAC mission, the strategies for its effective implementation, the activities to be developed in the first two operating years (pilot phase), its potential partners and clients, possible alternative financing sources, and mechanisms for a healthy interaction with industry federations, professional associations and other international organizations. During this Meeting, the Panel Members decided that the structure of IMAAC would be based upon the following features:

		a Network Centre, constituted by its headquarters plus associated nodes;
		the associated nodes should be located at interested partner countries;
		the headquarters would be based, at the pilot phase, at CETEM facilities;
		the architecture of the network system would have to be defined in such a way to maintain the headquarters coordination of the data banks established on the nodes, providing internal plus external links (other participating institutions not acting as nodes, per se);
		the headquarters should function with a minimum designed staff;
		IMAAC would count with consulting personnel whenever necessary;
		provisions for consultants would have to be borne into the building up of the operational structure.

The following documents are part of the background information for the conceptual development of IMAAC:

		Expert Mission preparatory document on the design and definition phase of the project: The Establishment of an International Materials Assessment and Application Centre; UNIDO, November 1989.
		Project Document no. TF/GLO/96/013.
		Discussion Meeting on Advanced Materials for Developing Countries, UNIDO Report, IPCT/.53, Vienna, Austria, December 1987.
		Expert Group Meeting on Materials Policy Issues, UNIDO Report IPCT/.168, Bangalore, India, December 1991.
		Aide-Memoire: Panel of Advisers' Meeting, UNIDO/IMAAC, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 1998.
		Advisory Panel Meeting, ed. V. Kozharnovich and L. Fellows Filho, CETEM, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 1998.
		IMAAC - Mission Statement; Objectives; Functions; Structure - Advisory Panel Meeting, UNIDO/IMAAC, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 1998.

In 1998 IMAAC started its Pilot Activities Phase and has already established an initial network consisting of 14 R&D and technology centres, universities and national authorities dealing with materials related issues in 12 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and United Kingdom).


The direct target beneficiaries of the IMAAC Project will be policy makers in the governments responsible for formulation and implementation of a country materials policy, enterpreneurs in industry and managers and specialists in R&D centres in developing countries dealing with materials design, manufacturing and application.


In the long-term, the establishment of an International Materials Assessment and Application Centre (IMAAC) will have a number of important wider benefits:

		It will provide a basis for developing countries gaining access to materials engineering, commercialization of R&D, processing and wider industrial application of new materials. That would assist them in development of and strengthening general technological capabilities in key sectors of industry vital for future competitiveness of a country. It would also raise the level of understanding throughout the materials related industry of the importance of materials transition for sustainable industrial and economic development and competitiveness.
		Cooperative international programmes will enable the developing countries to address Materials Science and Engineering issues within their own national institutions in a more coordinated and effective manner as well as in multidisciplinary and trans-sectoral approach.
		Collaborative work on materials issues will provide a strong platform for the materials research communities in the developing countries to build closer contacts on wider topics.
		The Centre will have better scope for interaction and linkages with established centres and other related initiatives of the developed countries than individual institutes or even developing countries would do so on their own.
		IMAAC will assist R&D laboratories to perform to a higher standard and would ease the laboratory accreditation process, as a whole, in developing countries.
		IMAAC will help the developing countries to formulate and implement a relevant national materials policy for sustainable competitiveness.

Such type of an international nodal point could assist developing economies in technology monitoring and forecasting in both frontier scientific and engineering research, in information gathering and dissemination, in generation of materials databases relevant to the mission and functions of IMAAC. It would provide the basis for national industrial and economic development, for strategic planning in materials research and policy formulation, as well as for building up strategic business alliances between institutions and enterprises in developing countries and between them and those in industrialized countries. IMAAC would also have an advantage in providing access to instrumentation to those institutions in developing countries that cannot afford it.