What will Portugal gain from the merger between the National Innovation Agency (ANI) and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)? The topic, which has raised controversy since the Government announced its intention to merge the two entities at the end of July, giving rise to the Agency for Research and Innovation (AI2), was under debate at the Innovators League.
Matilde Fieschi
For those who work in the areas of Innovation, the Nobel Prize in Economics awarded by the Swedish Academy is a “very stimulating” award. Although there were other academics and other works that could have been chosen, it is important to put the topic on the agenda. Why:
- “It draws attention to scientific ideas, in a world where we have the greatest scientific power in the world with a president who attacks science”
- “It gets people talking about innovation and the role of States in innovation policies”
- “It’s a warning to governments that think that by lowering taxes and simplifying licensing they think economies grow. That’s not how economies grow. Economies grow by innovating, and innovation doesn’t fall from the sky in a heap”
Matilde Fieschi
Visiting the League of Innovators, Isabel Rocha, vice-rector at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and Ricardo Paes Mamede, associate professor at ISCTE, analyze the proposed State Budget for 2026, the proposed merger of National Innovation Agency (ANI) and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the next WebSummit and the lessons to be learned from the Nobel Prize in Economics.
In Europe there is no lack of ideas or technology, what is missing is motivation. And, for motivation, it is to look at the USA and China: “In the case of the USA since the Second World War, the ‘motivation’ involves a question of security and power. And as for China, “first it wanted to stop being poor, then it wanted to stop being dependent, then it wanted to become rich and now it wants to be powerful”, they say. Listen to the podcast.
Other topics you might hear throughout the conversation
Nobel Prize for economics is a warning to the Government: “It is not by lowering taxes and simplifying licensing that economies grow”
“The way the merger between FCT and ANI was done is not good public policy”
“The most important contribution of the scientific system to the development of the economy is the development of skills. People think it is startups, unicorns, service provision, but it is not”
“We need to solve the problem of difficulties in connecting universities and companies. It’s not just on the science side, but also on the business side”
“At a certain point, artificial intelligence had ‘winters’ and these ‘winters’ were more intense in the United States”
WebSummits are important but “there is no country in the world that has developed solely based on startups”
The podcast that tells us what is innovative and differentiating is being done by companies in Portugal. In the “League of Innovators”, Elisabete Miranda and Pedro Lima talk to managers, directors and professionals who tell us stories that conquered the market and are contributing to the economic transformation of the country and its image. They tell us about the victories that brought them here, but also about the anxieties, the competitors they envy, the managers they admire, the professionals they have and the profiles they need to hire. Every week, on Wednesdays.