FCT scholarship recipient wins the 2022 Babbage Industrial Innovation Awards

Afonso Amaral, a fellow at the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the CMU Portugal Dual Doctorate Program, was honored for his work with the first prize of $10,000 at the 2022 Babbage Industrial Innovation Policy Awards, with the winning article "National and Sub-National Policy for Domestic Manufacturing Flexibility: A Policy Framework to Incentivize Flexibility Based on Lessons from the COVID-19 Medical Supply Response," co-authored with Nikhil Kalathil.

The article is based on a case study of five countries to assess the different policies implemented by Germany, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States to help domestic companies increase or control their production and medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A PhD student in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU Portugal) and the Instituto Superior Técnico of the University of Lisbon (IST-UL), Afonso Amaral is dedicated to industrial policy and specializes in maturity models and the implementation of critical technologies in small and medium-sized enterprises, their integration into Industry 4.0, and the benefits of digital transformation.

The CMU Portugal Program, funded by FCT, seeks to promote industry-academia relations as a driver of change with economic and social impact in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in the area of advanced training where Dual Degree Doctoral Programs are promoted, where admitted candidates can spend up to two years at CMU and up to three years at a university affiliated with the CMU Portugal Program. Upon successful completion of the Doctoral Program, candidates receive a doctoral degree from CMU and another doctoral degree from the corresponding Portuguese University.

Photo credits: CMU Portugal