Since its foundation 19 years ago as a pioneering collaboration with Portuguese universities, research institutions and companies, the Mit-Portugal Program (MPP) has obtained a series of success-to allow 47 entrepreneurial spin-offs and to finance more than 220 joint projects between MIT and Portuguese researchers in the training of exceptional researchers ATL.
In March, with almost two decades of collaboration under their belt, MIT and Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) signed an agreement that officially launches the next chapter of the program. In 2030, phase 4 of MPP will support the continuous exploration of innovative ideas and solutions in fields ranging from artificial intelligence and nanotechnology to climate change – both on the MIT campus and with Portugal partners.
“One of the advantages of having a program that lasted so long is that we know each other well at this stage. Over the years, we have learned the systems, strengths and weaknesses of each and we have been able to create a synergy that would not have existed if we worked together for a short period of time ”.
Hart and John Hansman, professor of T. Wilson in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and MPP co -director, are eager to take more the existing research projects of the program, while adding new areas of interest identified by the MIT and the FCT. Known as Fundação para a ciência e Tecnologia in Portugal, the FCT is the national public body supporting research in science, technologies and innovations under the Ministry of Education, Sciences and Innovation in Portugal.
“Over the past two decades, the Partnership with MIT has built a basis of trust that has favored collaboration between researchers and the development of projects with a significant scientific impact and contributions to the Portuguese economy,” said Fernando Alexandre, Minister of Portugal for Education, Sciences and Innovation. “In this new phase of the partnership, from 2025 to 2030, we expect an even greater ambition and impact – raising Portuguese science and its ability to transform the economy and improve our society at even higher levels, while helping to meet the challenges we face in fields such as climate change and oceans, digitization and space.”
“International collaborations such as the Mit-Portugal program are absolutely vital for the mission of research, education and MIT service. “MPP offers our teachers and students opportunities to work in unique research environments where not only do they do new results and learn new methods, but also contribute to resolution of urgent local and global problems. MPP work in the field of ocean science and climate is an excellent example of how international partnerships like this can help solve important human problems. ”
Sharing the commitment of MIT to academic independence and excellence, Kornbluth adds: “Institutions and researchers with which we partnership are in partnership thanks to MPP improve the ability of MIT to carry out its mission, allowing us to pursue the rigorous standards of the intellectual and creative distinction that makes a cradle of innovation and world leader in scientific discovery.”
The quintessence of an effective international collaboration, the MPP remained faithful to its mission and continued to provide results here in the United States and Portugal for almost two decades – prevailing in the middle of a myriad of changes in the political, social and economic landscape. The multiform program includes an annual research conference and education in education such as an innovation workshop at MIT every June and a summer school in Marine robotics in July, as well as exchanges of students and teachers who facilitate collaborative research. During the third phase of the program only, 59 MIT students and 53 teachers and researchers visited Portugal, and MIT welcomed 131 students and 49 teachers and researchers from Portuguese universities and other establishments.
In each phase of about five years, MPP researchers focus on a handful of main research fields. For phase 3, MPP has advanced advanced research in four strategic areas: climate science and climate change; Land systems: oceans near the space; digital transformation in manufacturing; and sustainable cities. In these vast fields, MIT and FCT researchers worked together on many small -scale projects and several large “flagship products”, including the development of the Cubesat satellite in Portugal, a collaboration between MPP and several Portuguese universities and companies that have marked the second launch of the country by satellite and the first in 30 years.
While work in phase 3 fields will continue during phase 4, researchers will also turn their attention to four other areas: chips / nanotechnology, energy (an earlier orientation in phase 2), artificial intelligence and space.
“We open the opening for additional collaboration areas,” explains Hansman.
In addition to focusing on separate subjects, each phase highlighted the different parts of the MPP mission to different degrees. While phase 3 accentuated collaborative research more than educational exchanges and entrepreneurship, these two aspects will receive more weight under phase 4 agreement, Hart said.
“We have the approval of phase 4 to bring a certain number of Portuguese students, and our main investigators will benefit from close collaborations with Portuguese researchers,” he said.
The longevity of the MPP and the recent launch of phase 4 are evidence of the value of the program. The program has played a role in educational, technological and economic progress that Portugal has also achieved in the past two decades.
“Today Portugal is remarkably stronger than Portugal 20 years ago, and many of the places where they are stronger have been affected by the program,” explains Hansman, pointing sustainable cities and “green” energy, in particular. “We cannot take a direct credit, but we have been part of Portugal's trip.”
Since the start of the MPP, Hart has added: “Portugal has become much more entrepreneurial. Many, many more start-ups come out of Portuguese universities than before. ”
A recent analysis Other American MPP and FCT collaborations have highlighted a number of positive results. The report noted that collaborations with MIT and other American universities have strengthened Portuguese research capacities and promoted organizational upgrades in the National R&D ecosystem, while providing Portuguese universities and companies with opportunities to engage in complex projects that would have been difficult to undertake by themselves.
With regard to the MIT in particular, the report revealed that the long -term collaboration of MPP has caused the creation of prolonged doctoral programs and underlined a marked change within the educational ecosystem of Portugal to standards aligned in the world. MPP, he reported, facilitated the education of 198 Portuguese doctors.
The universities, students and companies in Portugal are not the only ones to benefit from research, networks and the economic activity that the department has generated. MPP also offers a unique value at the MIT, as well as to the expansion of the American science and research community. For example, for example, the coherent themes of the program, for example, “the joint interest in the Atlantic”, says Hansman.
This summer, the island of Faial in the Azores will host the fifth annual summer school of MPP Marine robotics, a two -week course open to 12 Portuguese master's students and first -year doctorate and 12 undergraduate students and MIT superior students. The course, which includes Portuguese MIT conferences and other researchers, workshops, laboratories and practical experiences, “is always my favorite,” said Hart.
“I work with some of the best researchers in the world there, and some of the best students who leave the oceanographic institution of Woods Hole, MIT and Portugal,” he said, adding that some of his previous students of Marine robotics came to study at MIT, then become teachers in the ocean.
“So it was exciting to see the growth of students getting out of this program, certainly a positive impact,” said Hart.
MPP offers unique opportunities for research on the ocean due to the unique sea installations available in Portugal, in particular not only the open -air ocean off the coast of the Azores, but also the Lisbon deep water port and a Portuguese naval installation just south of Lisbon which is available for collaborative research by international scientists. As MIT, Portuguese universities are also strongly invested in climate change research – a field of studies well linked to ocean systems.
“The International Collaboration has allowed us to test and Further development our research prototypes in Different Aquaculture around Both in the Us and in Portugal, While Building on the only expertise of our Portuguese Faculty Collaborator Dr. Ricardo Calado from the University of Aveiro and Our Industry Collaborators,” Says Stefanie Tibco Career Development Associate Professor in Mit's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering and Leader of the Human Human-Bordor Group at Mit Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Mueller underlines the work of the doctoral student in mechanical engineering of MIT, Charlene Xia, a participant in the summer school of Marine robotics, whose research aims to develop an economic system to monitor the microbiome of algae farms and stop the propagation of harmful bacteria associated with the warming of the ocean. In addition to participating in the summer school as a student, Xia returned to the Azores for two years as a teaching assistant.
“The Mit-Portugal program was a key catalyst for our research on monitoring the aquatic microbiome for potential epidemics of disease,” said Mueller.
While MPP is entering its next phase, Hart and Hansman are optimistic about the continuous success of the program on both sides of the Atlantic and considering its impact in the future.
“I think that, at this stage, research goes very well, and we have a lot of links. I think that one of our objectives is to necessarily expand the science of the program, but the groups involved, “says Hart, noting that MPP could have a greater presence in technical fields such as AI and the manufacture of micro-nano, as well as in social sciences and human sciences.
“We would like to involve many more people and new people here at MIT, as well as in Portugal,” he says, “so that we can reach a greater group of the population.”
