One of the most imaginative ideas in this vein is a family of 'sectoral' funds, redirected corporate taxes that implement a national strategic policy to promote high-quality research and development in a country's industries. Such funds, as one now functioning in Brazil, require close interaction of the indigenous academic community, private sector, and government in creating it, setting its priorities, and managing it. Decisions are all jointly made on the selection of strategic sectors, their respective shares of the fund's resources, the blend of basic and applied research, the required overall budget, and sources of support. (See box 38)

In the case of Brazil, a comprehensive set of 14 trust funds was estab-lished, with tripartite management by the academic community, govern-ment, and industry. Incentives for industry's participation include the applicability to local industry of the research and development that receives sectoral funding, as well as the fact that no new taxes are involved, just the redirection of already-established government levies. Politicians and policymakers tend to react well to this program, as it helps fulfill public policies to develop the countries' competencies in specific strategic areas. Moreover, because the allocation commitments made by government (usually the Ministry of Science and Technology or the equivalent) are long term, the 'playing field' can be taken as a given for sound corporate plan-ning. In particular, the yearly resources do not have to be spent within the corresponding fiscal year (as in trust funds). Such predictability is a major draw for academic researchers as well.

Pakistan and India have reported successes with similar programs. (See box 39 for a description of the Pakistan sectoral-funding program) 

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