Knowledge Projects Invited Chairs Invited Chairs
The Invited Chairs program was initiated in 2008, with the goal of triggering partnerships of the State with enterprises to promote the attraction of researchers of the highest international level to Portugal and to further support the internationalization of Higher Education institutions while strengthening their ties with enterprises and other entities.
At the session on 12th May 2008 Science 2008: More Scientists for Portugal (text in Portuguese), which was chaired by the Prime Minister, José Sócrates, the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, José Mariano Gago, presented a series of new measures (text in Portuguese) for Science in Portugal, including the support of the FCT – Science and Technology Foundation to the creation of Invited Chairs at universities with public and enterprises support. In this session, the first two Invited Chairs were announced, both at University of Aveiro: An Invited Chair in Renewable Energies sponsored by Martifer Inovação e Gestão S.A., and an Invited Chair in Telecommunications sponsored by Nokia-Siemens Networks.
The Invited Chairs program would later involve, with the support of FCT, the following Invited Chairs: Invited Chair Delta Cafés in Biodiversity, at University of Évora; Invited Chair BES-Biodiversity, at University of Porto; Invited Chair EDP in Biodiversity, at University of Porto; Invited Chair in String Theory, at Instituto Superior Técnico; Invited Chair Odebrecht Capistrano de Abreu in Brazil and Portugal History, at University of Algarve; Invited Chair REFER in Biodiversity, at University of Porto; Invited Chair Santander Totta in Nanotechnologies, at University of Madeira.
It was also obtained the support of enterprises for the following Invited Chairs: Invited Chair Zon in Innovation and Operations Management; Invited Chair Atsutoshi Nishida in digital content production and technology use in education, as an integral part of the Toshiba Portugal Research and Learning Network; Invited Chair Alcatel-Lucent in Information and Communication Technologies. The last three were assured with the involvement of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) in negotiations with the respective companies.
In June 2010, the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education conferred to the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) the attribution of supporting Invited Chairs in the areas of its action. In October 2010, Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) signed with ZON Multimedia and the Faculty of Economics and Enterprise Sciences of the Portuguese Catholic University the contract-program to support the Invited Chair ZON in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
In October 2010, the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) signed with ZON Multimedia and the Faculty of Economics and Enterprise Sciences of the Portuguese Catholic University a contract-program to support the Invited Chair ZON in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.