Brazil is one of the fastest emerging economies in the world, relying on a mixed economy model and on import substitution to achieve economic stability and development. The science and technology development inside the country is a great part of this economic stability. The historical development of the S&T field in Brazil, according to Machado and Oliveira (2001) can be attributed to 3 factors:

- The enhanced enrollment in universities;

- The expansion in the number of graduates from higher education;

- The increase in the Brazilian contribution to publications in international scientific journals.

These authors analyzed the Brazilian investments in the S&T field and these three factors can certainly relate to the creation of policies for the development of technological research centers while also developing partnerships with universities to promote and fund scientific research, which leads to an increased number of publications not only in national territory but also in international journals.

The history of technological development in the emerging countries, can have more differences than similarities with the processes presented by developed countries. Some studies like the one from Furtado and Carvalho (2005) defends that the patterns of technological intensity of emerging countries` industries like the ones in Brazil, differs from the developed countries when analyzing indicators such as R&D expenditure by value added, the R&D expenditure structure and of Human Resources by sector of the industry.

These differences in technological efforts points towards to very distinct sectorial patterns. Developed countries, have a scenario of open economy, with international economical cooperation, inserted in a tight competitiveness environment and are mostly specialized in the manufactory of medium-to-high intensity technological products.

In the other hand, less developed countries have relatively closed economies, with limitations of external economic pressures and the industry and technology efforts being developed mostly towards to internal priorities. In other words, the internal needs of emerging economies dictates the path of technological development inside the country.

This example can be applied not only to Brazil, but also to other emerging countries` cases that had a late process of industrialization. With that in mind, there is a lower effort in the efforts towards building a high-tech sector in these countries.

In this context, multinationals tends to lead the segments that have more technological demand. These companies have higher access to technology imports and bases located in developed countries, which facilitates the production of contents in this segment.

Of course, there is always an exception to the rule, and despite the fact that Brazil follows this description in many technological sectors, when it comes to high technology transport materials, Brazil has Embraer representing this exception. The company has gained space in the exports of aircrafts, developing Brazilian technology and becoming one of most distinct national companies since its foundation in 1969.

Another exception could be the case of Petrobras with the diverse researches carried out in the field of oil production that led Brazil to the finding of hydrocarbon reserves under salt layers; the pre-salt. These reserves are allocated deep under the level of water and required the company to develop high technology special machinery so it can be explored. The efforts made of Petrobras in the case of pre-salt, made the country the pioneer into exploring this resource. According to Nishimoto (2012) the exploration of pre-salt can be so intense that can boost the economical position of the country by becoming an international leader in the exploration of natural oil and gas.

The industrial profile of the country shows that the country thrives in the sectors of natural resources exploration, civil construction, textile and agribusiness, the fact that the country is technologically developed in these areas, corroborates with the technological profile of countries that are competitive in lower-to-medium technological sectors. Brazilian industry also explores oil and natural gas, and the metallurgic industry which is very present, specially in iron and steel extraction. With that in mind, these sectors can be the differential of the country to bring economical prosperity and competitiveness in an international scenario.

This view of the exploration of the lower-to-medium technological sectors is one of the key features of Brazil`s economic awakening according to Onis (2008). Stated while characterizing the economical profile of the country, the current position of Brazilian economy is stagnated. In the study of this author, he states that the expansion of exports, the new oil discoveries and the technological development related to it, a greater financial stability combined with lower inflation and political cohesion in the development of policies for economic growth and science and technology development are the recipe for improving the countries` current scenario. Exploring the already strong sectors of industry while trying to consolidate and invest in the not so well-developed sectors can be the path that the country is already trailing to overcome the economic barriers.

Another subject of studies is the topic of Brazil`s potential to overcome the economic issues by exploring natural resources, is the ecosystem provided by the amazon forest. The forest is considered a national and even global treasure, Onis (1992) states that no other country has such a large untapped reserve of land and water unexplored. It is worth mentioning the efforts of the country, in order to create extractive reserves in the Amazon that protects the ecosystem, while guaranteeing the sustainable exploration for those who then have an incentive to protect the forest. This brings under discussion the topic of sustainable development, which is being extensively explored nowadays in the Brazilian literature for the issues that comes with the exploration of natural resources in smart ways that won`t harm the environment.

The use of science and technology for the development of sustainability is a concern of Brazil and also globally. The Brazilian, executive summary of the preparatory meeting for the world Science forum (2013), discussed the topic of the contribution of Brazil in the area of sustainable development, taking under consideration the planning of the STI strategy inside the country. This documents shows the intrinsic relationship between the STI policy making inside the country and the development of technologies and innovations that allows the sustainable exploration of resources inside a country. The importance of establishing a scientific and political cooperation for the development of technological basis and innovative solutions for the sustainable use of natural resources such as the tropical forests, are fundamental to guarantee income generation to the country while promoting ecosystem sustainability.

Бlvarez and Fuentes (2012) investigated how the abundance of natural resources inside a country can influence the technological specialization dynamics. The authors found that resource-rich countries are less likely to have comparative advantage in manufacturing goods and that dynamics in specialization are not necessarily impeded by having natural resources abundance. In other words, this study connects the fact that high-end technological products are less susceptible to be an advantage of countries with a lot of resources, even tough this fact doesn't stops the country to be specialized in different sectors of technology.

The impact of technological specialization in the productive process is an important subject that been under investigation in a number of studies in the field. Weinhold and Rauch (1999) studied specialization in less developed countries, including Brazil. The authors used econometrical analysis and dynamic panel estimation in order to test that if in the less developed countries specialization is positively and significantly correlated with increased manufacturing productivity growth. The study found evidence that specialization in the manufacturing sector increases the rate of growth of manufacturing productivity in less developed countries.

Despite being an important and widely studied field worldwide, and the fact that the technological development studies gaining strength inside Brazil there is not many studies related to the technological specialization topic being developed nowadays in the Brazilian S&T field.

An exception is the study of Carli (2015) that studies the characteristics of the patents filed in Brazil by scientific and technological institutions in order to study partnership and collaboration within these institutions in developing new technologies.

Other efforts to develop the subject inside the country is the article of Miranda (2014), that debates about the role of developing countries in the process of internationalization of economic activities. The idea is that the activity domains and the participation of these countries in a global scale have shifted throughout the years, presenting a strengthening both in magnitude and importance of these countries in an international landscape. This scenario is also present when applied to the Brazilian case, which have increased its participation in the global economy in the recent years.

The previously stablished importance of technological specialization and the fact that the number of publications related to the study of the field in Brazil is not too broad, generates a gap of knowledge in the field. It is fundamental to cover this gap in order to assist the countries` policy making process and also guide investments to the most prominent technological domains, between many other factors. study of patents and specialization inside the country has been gaining more relevance as industries are understanding the importance of these kind of studies.

The fact that there is a recent increase in the focus, and in the importance of developing the technological field inside the country, combined with an increase in public and private investments on the scientific study for technology and innovation development, makes it even more relevant to have studies that minimize the risks of these investments. Technological specialization studies, assists in covering the risks of these investments in order to maximize the effectiveness of the incentives put in S&T by gathering the knowledge of which domains are being the focus of development inside the country.

The efforts put in the development technological specialization studies, compared with the increase of the importance of S&T development inside the country does not match. The lack of studies and knowledge surrounding the field creates a gap in the Brazilian literature. This study offers a framework for filling up this gap, while accessing the capacity of the country to technologically compete in a global aspect, and developing strategies to improve specialization in Brazil.

This study offers to enlarge the current state of research, by using patent analysis, a tool commonly used in similar international studies. Sennes and Britto Filho (2012) states that patents are undoubtedly important for R&D development, and that agencies have been seeking to use patent data as indicators of technological success. With that in mind, this study aims to analyze the changes that occurred in the field over the years and observing the path that technology specialization development is going through for trying to access new trends that might appear in further years, based on the collected patent data information.