The FCT in response to COVID-19

The year 2020 was marked worldwide by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which we continue to combat in 2021. From the outset, knowledge and science were placed at the forefront of the response to the pandemic, with a widespread conviction across all sectors of society that only with more knowledge and science could solutions be found.

In Portugal, there has been an extraordinary mobilization of the scientific community and public and private R&D institutions, with the development of initiatives that have resulted in the provision of resources and personnel for diagnostic testing, the search for new therapies for treating patients, and the development of innovative solutions for protective and treatment equipment. The educational community has also quickly adapted to remote learning.

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), within the scope of its duties and powers, immediately sought to activate all the mechanisms at its disposal to be part of this collective effort to combat COVID-19. Throughout the year, in its capacity as a science funding agency, it developed and promoted initiatives to support the scientific community. In general, this support was directed towards research aimed at finding responses to the epidemic, leveraging existing scientific capacity, advanced training in doctoral programs to build medium-term skills in virology and epidemiology, strengthening the capacity for remote working in academic and scientific circles, and making R&D information on the pandemic available.

The FCT also reinforced all the technological capacity installed to support the scientific and teaching community managed by its National Scientific Computing Unit (FCCN), which ensured that the entire digital communications network infrastructure continued to function, even during the pressure experienced during the lockdown period.

In total, FCT invested around €13 million in this framework of extraordinary support for the scientific community in the fight against COVID-19, which consisted of the initiatives summarized below:

1) Funding for research initiatives

a) “Research4Covid-19” – special support for rapid implementation projects for innovative solutions in response to COVID-19. 121 proposals approved with total funding of €3.8 million. Support with the collaboration of AICIB – Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation;

b) “GenderResearch4Covid-19” – special support to stimulate the production and dissemination of knowledge on the gender impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen proposals were approved with total funding of half a million euros. Support in conjunction with the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality and with the support of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality;

c) “AI4Covid-19" – Call R&D projects on data processing and artificial intelligence in public administration in the context of the pandemic. Twelve projects approved with total funding of €2.9 million;

2) Advanced training at doctoral level

“Doctorates4Covid-19” – Call applications for Studentships for doctoral studies focused on SARS-Cov2 and Covid-19. Fifty Studentships approved, representing a total investment of €3.5 million;

3) Improvement of working conditions in academia and science

a) “Summer with Science" – initiative to encourage "Summer Schools" at polytechnics and universities, with face-to-face research activities. Support in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES). 80 proposals approved, with the award of 1,078 Studentships research initiation or research. Investments of €2.2 million;

b)      Science, Technology, and Society Network (RCTS) and Gigapix – reinforcement of RCTS, which supports internet connections for the teaching and research community, and GigaPIX, an infrastructure that acts as a neutral point for internet traffic exchange in Portugal, which ensured exponential traffic during the lockdown period. Infrastructure managed by FCCN;

c)      Colibri Platform – enabled a response to the needs of distance learning and working in higher education and research, which saw an increase in use of more than 2800% during the lockdown period (March and June 2020).

d) eduVPN service – digital services and tools to support teaching and science within the GÉANT network, to which the FCCN unit belongs: educast portal for recording, editing, and sharing educational videos; Videocast for video transmission via the Internet; and filesender for secure file sharing;

e) NAU – platform reinforced training and qualification with free courses for training teleworkers and on how to deal with the pandemic situation. Managed by the FCCN unit.

4) R&D information on the pandemic

“Science4Covid-19” – portal to mobilize scientific communities in joint R&D research projects and activities aimed at combating COVID-19. 118 ideas and actions registered. In collaboration with AICIB.

The success in developing these initiatives was made possible thanks to the extraordinary motivation of scientists and the entire educational community, as well as their ability to mobilize and collaborate across scientific fields and sectors. Today, we are faced with other complex global problems, such as climate change and demographic challenges, which require multidisciplinary intervention and cooperation between science and two sectors that have a profound impact on society: public administration and business. While this pandemic has clearly demonstrated this complexity and the limits of our knowledge, it has also shown that the responses found were only possible because Portugal already had a strong scientific structure, with a great deal of accumulated expertise in the areas of research and innovation.