• H2020
• Policy & Research

IN DEPTH: As the new president of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Maria Arménia Carrondo details affirmative action nationally and across the globe to realise Portugal’s R&I potential.

After two decades of undisputed growth, the main challenge facing R&I in Portugal in 2015 is to narrow the gap between the excellent quantitative output (measured, for example, in the number of researchers amongst the workforce and the number of publications per million inhabitants) and the qualitative outputs of greater impact of publications and more highly competitive European and international research funding.

The Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), or Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, has a clear goal of taking forward and completing the measures applied to narrow this gap in order to boost the international competitiveness of Portuguese R&D and crucially its scientific, economic and social impact. Indeed, over the last three years, several new, or thoroughly restructured, funding schemes have been put in place. These schemes aim at bolstering the country’s entire science base, from strengthening human capital to supporting the launch of research infrastructures.

Regarding the latter, FCT set up the first ever Portuguese roadmap of research infrastructures, thus placing the country on the European map and providing the scientific community with essential tools for more successful participation in continental and global frontier research projects. The roadmap also provides political leverage to position Portuguese teams in leading roles, influence future research agendas, and facilitate a closer link with industry.

Maria Arménia Carrondo

Empowering the PhD

FCT has long recognised that talented researchers underpin a strong and competitive science base. The longstanding annual calls for PhD studentships have been complemented with a new ‘FCT PhD Programme’ funding scheme, designed to support the best research-based PhD programmes, as assessed by international peer review, across all areas of research. The 98 ‘FCT PhD Programmes’ selected to date take with them just under 2,500 studentships, to be awarded at a rate of approximately 600 per year until 2018, and a further €7m for courses, laboratory rotations and fieldwork.

The first allocation includes seven PhD programmes that have industry partners (40 companies altogether). In an industry setting, these PhD programmes set the foundations for greater academia-industry links and, crucially, for increased uptake of PhD holders into industry, the benefits of which are expected to be felt in the next five years. The leverage capacity of the PhD programmes in an industry setting has been acknowledged by the regional co-ordination departments that are keen to maintain this funding scheme within the new multiannual funding framework.

Cultivating careers

Providing the basis for a career structure has become one of FCT’s priorities and is the ultimate aim of the FCT Investigator Programme, launched in 2012. It provides five-year contracts for the most talented and promising researchers, across all scientific areas and nationalities. The programme supports both outstanding postdoctoral researchers who wish to make the transition to independent researcher, and assists already independent researchers with a proven track record who wish to establish leadership in their research fields.

Just under 600 researchers have been selected for the programme, in three calls: the majority (83%) have the opportunity to stay in Portugal and pursue their careers thanks to the programme, whilst 16% of those selected have or will come to Portugal from abroad. More calls are in the pipeline in order to reach the goal of ‘populating’ Portuguese R&D units with 1,000 FCT investigators by 2016.

Centres of excellence

Most scientific research in Portugal takes place in R&D centres funded by FCT, via large five-year grants. Funding for each centre is established after international peer review in which fairness, rigour and transparency are key factors. The review of R&D units that began in 2013 could probably be considered the major programme carried out by FCT in the past years, for its breadth, scope, and above all for the impact it has on the 2015-2020 institutional landscape in Portugal.

At the time of writing, the review process was very near completion and the outcomes are that 257 units, of the 322 that were assessed, secured funding to a total of €77m a year. Of these, 11 units were considered to be international references (scored as ‘exceptional’), and 52 units to be of exceptionally high quality (scored as ‘excellent’). Together, these ‘centres of excellence’ secured 66% of total funding to allow them to carry out their strategic work programmes over the next six years.

The start of a new EU multiannual financing framework brings new challenges for the Portuguese R&I system as a whole, and for FCT in particular. Existing and new funding schemes will have to be executed according to the rules and guidelines that direct the use of the €1bn of EU Structural Funds secured for science and research, and Portugal generally.

Orchestrating this alignment, in close collaboration with other funding agencies in Portugal and with regional co-ordination centres, is 2015’s biggest challenge, since the groundwork carried out this year will lay the foundations for regular and consistent funding calls over the next six-year period. FCT acknowledges the importance of this work in ensuring a steady flow of funding that will underpin the smooth, uninterrupted progress of research and innovation in Portugal.

Flying start

The EU’s R&I framework programmes are a vital source of funding for Portugal’s science and innovation base; therefore a large effort has been put into preparing the research and innovation-based business communities for Horizon 2020.

Building on steady progress in participation of Portuguese researchers and businesses over the last couple of years of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the Portuguese Government has set ambitious targets for Horizon 2020. The goals are: to secure at least 1.5% of the total Horizon 2020 funds available in calls (approximately €930m over the seven-year period, which would mark a break-even with the Portuguese contribution to the Horizon 2020 budget, up from 1.15% break-even in FP7); to improve the success rate of Portuguese SMEs so that they may secure at least €200m; to double the number of European Research Council grants to at least 72 by the end of 2020; and to set a foothold in the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

Halfway into the second year of Horizon 2020, the assessment is enormously positive. By the end of 2014, Portuguese researchers, research teams and businesses had secured €140m of the approximately €8bn awarded in Horizon 2020 calls – a 1.75% success rate. Considering that Portugal’s contribution to the Horizon 2020 budget was €120m in 2014, the country is significantly above the break-even point at present.

The good news extends to most of the other objectives mentioned above. Researchers based in Portugal obtained a record-breaking 17 new ERC grants, adding up to €31m. On the other hand, Portuguese SMEs secured only €16m in the 2014 calls, revealing a weak point that needs concerted action if Portugal is to reach the €200m target by the end of Horizon 2020.

The outlook is definitely promising. However, as the saying goes, ‘one swallow does not make a summer’. Consequently, after a sprinting start, it is crucial to keep up the momentum and keep Portugal’s science base in the running, for the long haul.

International collaboration

Although a small nation, Portugal has a long history of going beyond its geographical borders, of discovering new worlds, building new partnerships and creating new knowledge. The country is aware of the truly global status of science and of the importance of access to European and international networks. Consequently, FCT runs an ambitious international relations programme.

FCT is a member of 28 ongoing ERA-NETs, which co-ordinate research activities between funding agencies, across the themes of exact sciences and engineering, life and health sciences, natural and environmental sciences, and social sciences and humanities. FCT also participates in two ‘global’ ERA-NETs with India and with Africa. Portugal is a member of three Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI), namely the Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Disease Research, JPI Water and JPI Oceans, where the FCT represents the scientific community and Portugal’s strategic research interests.

Over the past few years, FCT has revisited its vast portfolio of international co-operation, with a view to fine-tune mechanisms and approaches with strategic partners across the globe, tailored to specific scientific domains for the highest potentially mutual benefits. Since 2012, FCT has launched bilateral discussions with Norway, China, Tunisia, Algeria, Brazil and the United States (the National Institutes of Health). Some negotiations have led to joint funding calls for R&D project grants.

United link

The United States has been a privileged international partner since 2006, with several programmes established with American universities. The schemes are with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the field of engineering systems; Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, in ICT; University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) in emerging technologies; and Harvard Medical School in biomedical and clinical research.

The first stage of the USA-Portugal partnerships ended in 2012. After an independent external evaluation, led by the Academy of Finland, a second stage was recommended, given the demonstrated potential of this model for promoting R&I and cultural change. The second stage of the partnerships is now in progress until 2017 with a shift in focus: rather than education and training (master’s, PhD and postdoctoral training), emphasis is now on research with an entrepreneurial objective. Carrying out innovation research with strong economic impact, and close ties between academia and industry, is now the mission of these programmes (except with Harvard Medical School).

The outcomes, to date, are impressive. The MIT, Carnegie Mellon and UT Austin programmes together involve close to 160 business partners and have launched two dozen start-ups. The ‘Portuguese Global Innovation Hub for Technology Business Incubation and Acceleration in Austin’ (BIZ.pt) is the first operation of its kind to focus on nurturing Portuguese early start-ups and mature technology companies to expand beyond the local market. In three calls, BIZ.pt is providing business development, soft-landing, incubation and acceleration opportunities to 19 Portuguese technology-based companies.

The University Technology Enterprise Network (UTEN), born within the UT Austin-Portugal partnership, focuses on building capacity and infrastructures to underpin technology transfer and commercialisation. UTEN has facilitated the creation of four business incubators, six technological parks, training for just under 100 technology transfer officers and 27 internships in knowledge transfer.

Global ambition

FCT’s vision is to establish Portugal as a global reference in science, technology and innovation, and to increase the impact of knowledge generated by scientific research on the economy and in society. Built into this vision are three underlying challenges: creating stronger and mutually beneficial ties between academia and industry; achieving balanced brain circulation; and sustaining curiosity-driven, frontier research.

Portugal’s science base is mature and robust enough to rise to these challenges and FCT is certain that the programmes described will, within the next five to ten years, provide effective returns on the investments made.

Maria Arménia Carrondo

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

This article is also published in the seventh edition of Portal, which is now available to read online.