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President of FCT visits Carnegie Mellon University

Photo_Visit of the FCT President to CMU

The President of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Madalena Alves, joined the committee from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and accompanied the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Elvira Fortunato, on a visit to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), in Pittsburgh, United States of America (USA), from 26 to 28 March, in the presence of the Portuguese Ambassador in Washington, Francisco Duarte Lopes.

The purpose of this visit was to make an assessment of the 3rd phase of CMU Portugal Program, a partnership created between Portugal and CMU in 2006, which involves Portuguese universities, Associate Laboratories in the area of Information and Communication Technologies, among other national entities, in addition to 11 CMU Departments, about 150 companies and more than 400 teachers and senior researchers in mobility in Portugal and the USA. This partnership has contributed to increase the impact of knowledge and science in the economy, particularly in the Portuguese business and industrial fabric, and has already promoted the creation and development of 26 leading startups in crucial areas such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, and mobility, two of which reached unicorn status. The CMU Portugal Program is integrated in the goPortugal - Global Science and Technology Partnerships Portugal initiative and has allowed the creation of 1500 jobs by supporting these 26 companies.

It is recall that, until 31 March, a call is open for the award of 12 Studentships doctoral programs under the CMU Portugal Affiliated Doctoral Programs initiative, funded by FCT. The Studentships are in the following areas: computer science, electrical and computer engineering, engineering and public policy, human-machine interaction, spoken language technologies, robotics and software engineering. All information about this call is available at the CMU Portugal program page.