Wildlife Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, US National Science Foundation, Volkswagen Foundation, just to name a few of the more important ones in the history of Brazilian science and technology. Trends in science and technology Creation of social organizations Brazil's public research institutes and universities follow rigid rules that tend to make them difficult to manage. States may opt to develop their own research institutes and university systems but, as all laws and regulations are adopted at federal level, they all have to follow the same rules and regulations. Thus, they all come up against the same hurdles. These include extensive bureaucratic structures, an obligation to recruit staff, academic or otherwise, from among public servants, analogous career ladders and salary systems, an irregular flow of funds, overly complex procurement procedures and powerful unions in the civil service. A structural alternative was developed in 1998, with the creation of social organizations. These private, non-profit entities manage public research facilities under contract to federal agencies. They have the autonomy to hire (or fire) staff, contract services, buy equipment, choose the topics and objectives of scientific or technological research and sign research contracts with private companies. The flexibility accorded to these social organizations and their management style have made them a success story in Brazilian science. As of 2015, there were six such organizations: Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA); Institute for the Sustainable Development of the Amazon Forest (IDSM); National Centre for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM); Centre for Management and Strategic Studies (CGEE); National Teaching and Research Network (RNP); and Brazilian Research and Industrial Innovation Enterprise (Embrapii). Embrapii is the most recent. It was established by the federal government in 2013 to stimulate innovation through a system of calls for proposals; only institutions and enterprises deemed eligible may respond to these calls, thus speeding up the whole process and offering applicants a greater chance of success; Embrapii was due to be assessed in late 2015. Incentive measures and targets In the late 1990s, as economic reforms took hold, legislation was adopted to stimulate private R&D. Arguably the most important milestone was the National Law on Innovation. Soon after its approval in 2006, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation published a Plan of Action for Science, Technology and Innovation (MoSTI, 2007) establishing four main targets to be attained by 2010: Raise gross domestic expenditure on R&D