Portugal – Miscellaneous

Overall Scope

• Forum for the Information Society
• White Book of the Portuguese Scientific and Technological Development 1999-2006 process
• National Grid Initiative
• “Science in Portugal Meetings”
• Open Access Scientific Repository of Portugal (RCAAP)
• Partnerships for the Future
• R&D Consortia
• International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL)

Portugal had an early start (in 1996-1997) in the creation of a multistakeholders forum regarding Information Society, the Internet and ICT, involving public administration, research and technical community, industry and services enterprises and associations, civil society organizations, and key individualities. In 1996-1997, a comprehensive plan for the development of the Information Society, quite unusual at the time and a precursor of eEurope 2002 and even of some of the i2010 measures, was published as the “Green Book for the Information Society in Portugal” (Portuguese version: Livro Verde para a Sociedade da Informação em Portugal, May 1997) and it was prepared with the contribution of many meetings of a multistakeholders forum.

In 1998-1999, a plan for the “Portuguese Scientific and Technological Development for 1999-2006” was developed also with multistakeholder participation that convened close to 30 meetings of a forum dedicated to specific themes which, together, counted with more than 3.500 participants, and also involved a “Permanent Forum of Scientific and Technological Policy” opened in the Internet for a period of 13 months which received 85 institutional, collective or individual contributions. These fora led to the publication in July 1999 of the “White Book of the Portuguese Scientific and Technological Development 1999-2006”, naturally including, among other areas, ICT, Internet and Information Society research and innovation.

In July 2005, the action programme for the Information and Knowledge Society for 2005-2010 – Connecting Portugal – was approved and explicitly re-established the Forum for the Information Society.

In March 2006, the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) organized and convened the Forum for the Information Society, opened by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education and closed by the Prime Minister, which, among others, had debate sessions on the situation and evolution perspectives of the Information Society in Portugal within world context, the modernization of the public administration with ICT, training and qualification of human resources in and with ICT, promoting e-commerce, new horizons in ICT (sensor networks, distributed decision and the role of connectivity; demographic challenges), public policies (ICT in regional development and creation of employment, ICT for social inclusion, new enterprise opportunities in ICT).

In May 2007, within the general reform of the Portuguese public administration, the new bylaws of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), published in the Portuguese Official Journal, determined the creation of a Information Society Forum within UMIC as a formal consultation body for the development of public policy with the participation of the main public and private social actors. In April 2006, the National Grid Initiative (INGRID) set by the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) was launched. In November 2006 UMIC organized a forum on the INGRID which was followed by, the opening of a call for proposals by the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) in applications of Grid Computing. As a consequence there is current research going on in:(i) computer simulation and analysis of high energy physics data as those to be produced by the CERN LHC experiment and by plasma physics and nuclear fusion in relation to ITER, (ii) on forecasting the evolution of Portugal maritime coastline, (iii) on simulation of forest fires, (iv) on the mapping of atmospheric pollution, (v) on the simulation of the structure of proteins, (vi) on data a image repositories for medical applications, (vii) on brain imageology.

In July 2006, the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) initiated a cycle of stakeholders meetings regarding the installation and operation of Next Generation Networks (NGN) and the related advanced services over broadband. These meetings took place in July 2006, July 2008 and February 2009, and involved the participation of the main actors in the creation of the first few NGNs in Portugal, and so far the only ones. They were all developed under steering of UMIC, namely: (i) the Science, Technology and Society Network evolution to a NGN from the previous conventional NREN which is now-a-days the only operational NGN in Portugal, with dark fibre (covering more than 70% of the national higher education system) illuminated at 10 Gbps with mobile broadband local access in all higher education campi and supporting a wide range of advanced services over broadband; and (i) 4 Community Networks in remote and rural areas in dark fibre of more than 1,100 Km and with active equipment illuminating it a 10 Gbps, which were successfully built in the 2nd half of 2008.

In 12-13 April 2007, the 1st “Science in Portugal Meeting”, opened by the Prime Minister and closed by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, was organized by the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) and the Council of the Associated Laboratories (CLA) in the form of a widely participated open forum involving scientists, research institutions and industry which, among others had specific sessions on: ICT; engineering systems, robotics, aeronautics and space; nanoscience and nanotechnology.

In 2-4 July 2008, the 2nd “Science in Portugal Meeting”, involved the same stakeholders as the previous one and, besides the topics considered in the first meeting, addressed, among others, the following additional themes: (i) sensor networks, next generation networks and intelligent ambients; (ii) critical infrastructures; (iii) grid computing, supercomputing and open access scientific repositories; (iv) digital interactive content; (v) energy sustainable systems; (vi) intelligent transportation systems; (vii) nanosystems; (viii) new science based enterprises.

In 2008, the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) launched a project for the development of the Open Access Scientific Repository of Portugal (RCAAP) integrating the 6 existing institutional repositories and starting from scratch 6 new institutional repositories fully integrated at national level, as well as providing a platform for free hosting of repositories of any of the Portuguese higher education or scientific institutions. The RCAAP was inaugurated in 15-16 December 2008 at a where open and free access to knowledge was debated.

Partnerships for the Future – Beginning in 2006 and expanded since then within the initiative “Commitment to Science for the Future of Portugal” which was presented to the National Parliament in March 2006 by the Prime Minister, the Portuguese Government launched the initiative Partnerships for the Future (in Portuguese: Parcerias para o Futuro), establishing ambitious international partnerships involving research institutions, universities and enterprises with leading world universities and scientific organizations , all of them including advanced aspects of ICT relevant to the Future Internet:

• MIT – Portugal Programme (11 Oct 2006), with MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing (including communicating sensor based biomedical applications), Energy Systems, Transportation Systems, Bioengineering Systems;
• CMU – Portugal Programme (27 Oct 2006), with Carnegie Mellon University: Sensor Based Networks, Critical Infrastructures and Risk Assessment, Information Security, Language Technology, Software Engineering, ICT Public Policy, Technical Change and Innovation;
• UT Austin – Portugal Programme (2 Mar 2007), with University of Texas at Austin: Advanced Digital Media, High Performance Computing, UTEN – University Technology Enterprise Network with one component in University of Texas at Austin and another in Portugal (composed of 14 Portuguese universities and several R&D organisations and technology parks), with the main objective of promoting the development of globally competitive and sustainable Portuguese technology commercialization infrastructure benefiting of the experience of the IC² Institute (Innovation, Creativity, Capital) and the Austin Technology Incubator of University of Texas at Austin;
• Fraunhofer – Portugal Programme (18 Apr 2007), with Fraunhofer Gesellschaft: Creation in Portugal (Porto) of the 1st Fraunhofer Institute outside Germany, the Fraunhofer Portugal Research Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions (AICOS);
• Harvard – Portugal Programme (to be initiated in April 2009), with Harvard Medical School: Transfer Health and Biomedical Research Knowledge to Citizens, medical and nurse school students, and health practitioners.

In March 2009, a call initiating the process of creation of new R&D Consortia was opened by the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) and the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC). These R&D Consortia (to be established as new not-for-profit associations with independent legal identity) are conceived to bring together State Laboratories, Associate Laboratories and other research units, universities, and enterprises around a few R&D application themes of strategic interest, some of them with particular relevance for ICT research, including: ocean science and technology, natural risks, nuclear physics and advanced computing, space science and technologies, security.

In 2009, the new INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory will begin its activities. This is a bold initiative of Portugal and Spain to create together in Braga, Portugal, with equal initial investments, the 1st International Research Organization established by a Treaty between nations under international law in the Iberian Peninsula, and also the 1st world such organization in nanotechnology, a strategic enabling technology for the future (“Nanotechnology is the builder’s final frontier”, Richard Smalley, Nobel laureate 1996), which will be open to the membership of other Countries of Europe and of other continents. This initiative was decided in the Portugal-Spain Summit of November 2009, had the bilateral convention for the statutes signed in the Summit of November 2006, the treaty ratified by the parliaments of both countries during 2007, the headquarters agreement signed between Portugal and INL in the Summit of January 2008, the Council , Director-General and Deputy Director-General nominated in May 2008, the actual construction beginning in June 2008, and has the inauguration planned for the second half of 2009. The priority areas elected for the initial period of this International Laboratory, which is planned to reach 200 scientists and 400 people (counting also technicians and research students), are Nanomedicine (drug delivery, nanotechnology for diagnostics), Environmental Applications, Food Quality Applications, and as transversal enabling areas Electronic Devices and Nanotechnology Safety. From the very beginning, this laboratory aims at developing special connections with industry and trailing an ambitious path in nanotechnology driven innovation based on science and leading to commercial results. Altogether, the laboratory was conceived to become a Platform of Excellence for International Cooperation (“The ambition of both countries is to create a research site of world scale relevance, capable of attracting scientists and technicians from all points of the world”, José Mariano Gago, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Portugal, November 2005).

The ongoing activities considered in the initiative Partnerships for the Future, in the thematic sessions of the 2nd “Science in Portugal Meeting” in the new R&D Consortia and in the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) were selected having in mind responding to the structural problems associated with the current economic crisis which could already be foreseen in 2006. In fact, the activities considered have both scientific and economic relevance for the future and open new opportunities for international competitiveness in the knowledge-based economy unlocking a gate of an avenue to a transition in the national economic model.

R&D Scope

In recent years (2007-2009), the main scientific and technological initiatives regarding to Future Internet and its applications, were mainly in the following areas:

• Sensor networks and Internet of Things
• Intelligent ambients
• Grid computing
• Advanced mobile communications
• Next Generation Networks
• Engineering systems and robotics
• Energy sustainable systems
• Intelligent transportation systems
• Nanosystems
• Security of information systems and networks
• Critical infrastructures
• Open access scientific repositories
• Digital interactive content

Expected Impact

The activities considered since 2007, and especially within “The Partnerships for the Future” initiative and the thematic sessions of the 2nd “Science in Portugal Meeting” were driven by looking at globalisation as an opportunity in the knowledge-based economy and are expected to have impacts on:

• the development of world value talent and competitive knowledge, based on effective and challenging international partnerships with the aim of developing an internationalized knowledgeable, creative and skilled workforce for the knowledge-based industry;
• the bringing together of Portuguese participants from a large number of research institutions, universities and enterprises, to cooperate with specific groups of a world level recognised international partner institution around concrete projects;
• the strengthening of the working links between researchers, scientific institutions and of enterprises with research institutions and universities, on concrete cooperation activities so as to build up the potential scale of Portuguese participation in international RTD projects;
• the introduction in Portuguese universities of new fields of knowledge of particular importance in complex systems that involve the interaction of science, technology and society, as it is the case with engineering systems;
• the opening of new opportunities for science and technology based innovation of global reach;
• the introduction in Portugal of advanced professional education and training in engineering areas, in particularly directed to engineers working in industry and in services enterprises, to play a similar role that MBAs play in business management;
• the establishment of enduring international partnerships appropriate in the context of the globally networked and knowledge-based society, enabling such networks of competence to reach global markets;
• the attraction of foreign R&D investment in Portugal.

In what concerns to impacts of the initiative of creation of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), besides common aspects with some points in the preceding bullets (1st, 5th,7th and 8th), the following statement in the Progress Report of the Technical Committee created to define the concept of this laboratory (in July 2006) is of particular relevance:“Nowadays it is clear that nations most actively participating in the international effort to harness nano science and technology by developing innovative platforms of excellence for international cooperation, open an attractive to the leading researchers in the world as international laboratories can be, will benefit earlier and to a greater extent from their benefits, and will be able to play a leading role on the scientific, technical and economic cooperation with other advanced regions as well as with less developed regions in Latin America and Asia”.

Though ICT and the Internet are enabler technologies with effects across all sectors, the specific application areas are: sustainable energy and environment quality, transportation systems, health, active ageing, food quality, ocean sciences, natural risks mitigation and response, critical infrastructure management and security, creative and culture industries.

Involved constituency

The involved stakeholders are the scientific and technical community, universities, industry and services enterprises and associations, civil society organizations, and the relevant public administration.