FCT grant holder wins Babbage Industrial Innovation Awards 2022

Afonso Amaral, a scholarship holder from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the CMU Portugal Dual Doctoral Program, was awarded the first prize of 10,000 dollars at the Babbage Industrial Innovation Policy Awards 2022 for his work, 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" and 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 of America to help national 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 FCT-funded CMU Portugal Program seeks to promote industry-academia relations as a driver of change with economic and social impact in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in the area of advanced training in which 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 awarded by CMU and another doctoral degree awarded by the corresponding Portuguese University.

Photo Credits: CMU Portugal