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Home > Knowledge Networks > News > 7th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the MIT-Portugal Program

7th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the MIT-Portugal Program

 - 12/11/2009

Logo of MIT – Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Board of Directors of the MIT-Portugal Program met on 12 November 2009. This was the 7th time since this program was initiated on 11 October 2006 under the scope of the Knowledge Networks activities integrated within the Commitment to Science for Portugal’s Future initiative.

The Board of Directors of the MIT-Portugal Program is chaired by the President of the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), João Sentieiro, and also includes the MIT Chancellor, Phil Clay, the Dean of the MIT Engineering School, Subra Suresh, the President of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), Luis Magalhães, and the respective Program Directors at MIT and in Portugal, Daniel Roos and Paulo Ferrão.

The meeting was primarily focused on discussing the progress report submitted by the program directors, discussing and approving the management structure of the Program areas in accordance with the guidelines of the strategic review of the program adopted at the 6th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the MIT– Portugal Program, discussing the evaluation and the contractual process of the public call for proposals for R&D projects opened in 2009, organising the visit of the MIT President, Susan Hockfield, to Portugal, and the setting up of the Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship with ISCTE.

The meeting also considered strategic issues for the possible future enhancement of the Program in five areas:

  1. Attract and retain top researchers;
  2. Strengthen industry-science relations;
  3. Promote a positive impact on undergraduate university education;
  4. Promote a positive social impact and broaden the social base of support for the presence of MIT in Portugal;
  5. Promote institutional development through:
    • recruitment of a set of postdoctoral researchers;
    • promotion of activities focused on research based on current activities and the strategic review of the Program, particularly in sustainable cities (including “smart cities” and “green islands”), sustainable energy systems (including “smart grids”), electric mobility, stem cells, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine;
    • launch of a new 5-year project to modernize the Engineering curriculum, by seeking to open a competitive application process for projects to modernize the curriculum in Portuguese Engineering schools in collaboration with MIT;
    • planning the launch of a network of Community Technology Centres in Portuguese cities through a program of internships and extracurricular activities of university students with the aim of transforming the community with the promotion of creative knowledge-based activities, particularly in socially dysfunctioning areas;
    • development of a postgraduate school in Systems Engineering alongside the main Portuguese Engineering schools and MIT.

Further information can be obtained at the MIT-Portugal Program Website .

Last updated ( 05/08/2011 )