Knowledge Networks News 4th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the UT Austin-Portugal Program 4th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the UT Austin-Portugal Program
- 15/07/2009
The main management body of the UT Austin-Portugal Program, the Board of Directors, met for the 4th time on 15 July 2009, a little more than two years since the Launching of the UT Austin-Portugal Program on 2 March 2007. The meeting was chaired by the President of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), Luis Magalhães, standing in for the President the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), João Sentieiro, and took place at INESC Porto.
This meeting was concerned with analysing the progress made in each area (Digital Content, Advanced Computing, Mathematics, and encouraging the activities of commercialization of science and technology by the UTEN – University Technology Enterprise Network), the strategic plan for each of these areas, the budget review, aspects resulting from the transition of resources from the initial top-down stage to the current bottom-up stage based on public tenders, tenders for research projects and in particular the preparation of the announcement and evaluation of the tender which is to open shortly, the affiliation of enterprises to the Program, the creation of a University Committee made up of the Heads of the Faculties involved in the Program and an Industrial Advisory Board, to improve communications and the dissemination of the program and its activities.
This meeting of the Board of Directors of the UT Austin-Portugal Program, besides the President of The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), Luis Magalhães, included the Vice President for Research at UT Austin, Juan Sanchez, the Program Director at UT Austin, David Gibson, and the Director of the Program in Portugal, António Câmara. The Associate Vice President for Research at UT Austin, Robert Peterson, also a member of the Board of Directors, was unable to attend the meeting. Invitations to attend the meeting were also made to the following: José Manuel Mendonça, Director of UTEN in Portugal, Vasco Varela, Executive Director at FCT for the Partners for the Future programs, and Pedro Madeira, Executive Director of the Program. The first part of the meeting was attended by the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor.
The UT Austin-Portugal Program was started on 2 March 2007 under the scope of the Knowledge Networks activity, which forms part of the Commitment to Science for Portugal’s Future initiative.