25 new R&D projects approved under the “Go Portugal” Program

Twenty-five new projects have been approved and will be funded under the "Go Portugal – Global Science and Technology Partnerships Portugal" program, with total funding of €55.2 million over the next three years, including €16.7 million funded by American partner universities (UT Austin, CMU, and MIT) and €7.7 million in corporate self-financing. At the national level, the projects include co-financing by European funds, namely through the COMPETE 2020 Program (€11.5 million), PO Norte (€4.3 million), PO Centro (€2.5 million), PO Lisboa (€5.3 million), with an additional contribution from FCT of €7.2 million.

The selected projects cover the following areas: Data Science; Advanced Computing; Digital Transformation in Industry; Sustainable Cities; Space-Earth Interactions in the Atlantic, Climate Change, Medical Physics, and Nanomaterials. In the area of space-Earth interactions, the approved projects are particularly relevant to strengthening the Atlantic International Research Center (AIR center) and the "Atlantic Interactions" agenda.

The projects will be developed in the context of Portugal's international partnerships with:

• The University of Texas at Austin (UTA), which includes 11 selected R&D projects, with total funding of €21.9 million, to which UT Austin contributes €7.8 million. The R&D activities focus on the development of new technologies in the automotive and space industries, advanced computing, and applications in medicine and biotechnology.
• Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), which is involved in 10 R&D projects with total funding of €21 million, with CMU's contribution amounting to €6.2 million. It includes R&D activities with an emphasis on Data Science and Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Design and Engineering applied to Social Problems, and Mobility and Autonomy, addressing issues in the areas of health, forest fire prevention, data management, and simultaneous translation.
• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with four R&D projects and total funding of €12.2 million, with €2.7 million contributed by MIT. It involves activities in the areas of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing and Sustainable Cities, including communication networks, involving 5G communications and innovative digital transformation processes.

These 25 projects involve 34 companies and 27 entities from the National Scientific and Technological System (SCTN), revealing a strong commitment from the national innovation ecosystem. National companies are responsible for leading the collaborative networks and projects that have now been approved, with a view to modernizing the economic fabric and accelerating the innovation process in Portugal in partnership with researchers from CMU, MIT, and UT Austin.

See the list of the 25 approved projects here.