FCT organizes workshop on S&T funding for sustainable research careers

On September 28, 2023, FCT organized the first of three workshops hybrids, on the general theme of "South-South Dialogues," part of the Action "Policies and financing practices for glocal, ethical, innovative, and relevant science and technology: dialogues between Angola, Mozambique, and Portugal." This initiative is funded by the program EU-Angola Dialogue Facility, under the European Development Fund, and aims to create a partnership between the R&D funding agencies that comprise it: FUNDECIT (Angola), FNI (Mozambique) and FCT (Portugal).

The session, which was opened by Madalena Alves, Chair of the FCT Governing Board, Rosa Maurício, Deputy Director-General of FUNDECIT, and Florêncio Maulano, Deputy Director-General of FNI, focused on the “S&T funding for sustainable research careers”, a topical issue currently under debate in many European countries, and present in several of the FCT's activities.

The strategic potential of sustainability, when geared towards inclusive and diverse careers, and of the sustainability of R&D systems themselves, was widely debated by speakers and participants, with several examples and experiences shared, both from an institutional point of view and in academic and scientific terms. The channels of dialogue opened in this workshop will allow these debates to continue in other forums and bring the Portuguese, Angolan, and Mozambican scientific communities even closer together.

This will be followed by workshops in Maputo on November 14 and in Luanda on January 16, 2024, which aim to promote a more comprehensive dialogue regarding both the inclusion of guiding issues for the management of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) and the inclusion of other stakeholders beyond partner agencies. This series of workshops is part of a benchmarking exercise being developed between the three funding agencies, with the aim of promoting the exchange of knowledge and experiences in STI management, which will culminate in the presentation of a Final Report.