In 2011, Alexandre Ferreira da Silva completed his PhD through the MIT-Portugal program, specializing in Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering and, later, in aerospace research. Almost 15 years later, he now assumes the direction of this partnership between Portuguese institutions and the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to help train a new generation of researchers in Portugal, giving other young people the same opportunity he himself had. In an interview with Expresso, the professor from the University of Minho explains what strategic areas they will invest in and what will change in the program to ensure that the investment has an effective return for the country.
What are the main strategic lines of this new phase of the MIT-Portugal Program, now that almost 20 years have passed since its launch?
Over the last 20 years, this program has served as a catalyst for science and technology in Portugal. In terms of objectives, the logic of the program continues to be to strengthen national capacity in the area of innovation, boost some areas of research that are critical and help train a new generation of researchers, at the same time focusing on entrepreneurship. But now we have a reorientation of the areas that will be priorities.