“The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education has not put an end to these partnerships. “Instead, because the current contract will expire on December 31, with provision for automatic renewal until 2030, the Trust, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), has begun the process of renegotiating a new contract.” a permit.
The partnerships involved include Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Texas at Austin, all in the United States.
In a statement issued by the ministry, the government official “denies and categorically denies” that she “hid an opinion requested by the National Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CNTI) from a group of experts” to evaluate these partnerships.
The PSD today challenged the Socialist Party leadership candidates to abandon “tricks and petty power plays” and take a stand on the government’s “serious decision” not to renew partnership contracts with North American universities.
“We react strongly to this unexpected news that comes to us from the government regarding the end of the partnerships that we have had with leading North American universities for many years and we consider it a serious decision, which it is not,” criticized, in statements to the Lusa Agency, the coordinator of the National Strategic Council of the Social Democratic Party. , Pedro Duarte.
The Social Democrat asked the government for clarification on this decision, which he considers wrong, and which “contradicts much of the thinking of national ‘startups’, Portuguese companies, the most innovative and employable elements of Portuguese society.”
He added: “The minister’s position is surprising, to say the least, because the contracts will expire at the end of the year, and she has known for a long time, as the whole country has known, that they will expire at the end of the year.” . If the idea was to renegotiate, it clearly should have been done sooner,” condemned the CEN coordinator.
“The new government will eventually have to start over or start a completely different conversation because there will be no renewal of the contract because it will expire at the end of the year,” Pedro Duarte said.
In the statement issued now, the Ministry also stated that the FCT sent a letter to those universities containing the terms of the new renegotiation, in which it stated that it intends to maintain “international cooperation after the termination of this specific agreement,” in a strategy that serves the current and future interests and challenges of science and technology globally in Various fields of knowledge.
The government, through the FCT, “ensures that the document includes preliminary proposals that require further research and detail, with the hope that they will contribute to strengthening synergies and consolidating historical cooperation with mutual benefits for the institutions involved, in particular in the award of dual grants.” Degrees for doctoral students involved in partnerships.”
Furthermore, protocols were signed with the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, to promote academic exchange between Portugal and the USA and the internationalization of Portuguese science.
On the other hand, “because MCTES believes that any international partnership must take place with the best international universities, in addition to the aforementioned American universities, there is a strengthening within the scope of the alliance of European universities as well as the universities of the South.” Korea,” the statement says.
It also notes that the content of the proposal now submitted resulted from the contributions and opinions of the Council of Deans of Portuguese Universities (CRUP), the Council of Associated Laboratories (CLA), the National Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CNCTI) and the Scientific Councils of the FCT “and other entities in the national science and technology ecosystem, which It was heard for this purpose which served as the basis for the decision taken.”
AG (JF) // PC
Losa/The End
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