After the conclusion of the 2018-2020 term of INESC TEC’s Board of Directors, the time has come to show the results, and ponder on these three years of INESC TEC’s service to society, and of the Board of Directors’ service to the INESC TEC community.
We presented said results to INESC TEC Associates – those who created the institution and became part of it, adopting it as their own, and as their tool for intervention. However, INESC TEC has other stakeholders, who are not of minor importance: the members of its community – professors, employees and grant holders – and its partners, as well as the companies and national and international institutions with which we develop projects; and, ultimately, our country and its citizens, who acknowledge and embrace our “impactful science”.
Leaders are always responsible for renewing and improving our science management model, in a continuous and industrious way, building the infrastructures and spaces for creation and collaboration, thus welcoming the initiative and the work of researchers, stakeholders, and of all those who aim to collaborate with the institution, in the best way possible. The many cases of success are deeply associated with their main actors, but the truth is that they are, without exception, the product of a team of more than a thousand people.
We start by presenting a selection of our collective achievements, towards fulfilling INESC TEC’s mission. Throughout these three years, the institution’s activity increased 13%, exactly the same growth in the number of PhD employees, which are now 354, undoubtedly one of the largest research institutions in the country. As the number of articles in indexed journals rose by 25%, we can conclude that there was an increase in scientific production. However, and because of the scientific employment policies by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES), the number of R&D employees more than doubled, from 71 to 152, with a strong transformative impact on the profile of the institution’s human resources.
In the field of knowledge transfer, we carried out 11 software copyright registrations, 18 patent applications and 88 international patent requests over this three-year period. In addition, 17 patents were granted, together with eight licensing agreements and four new spin-offs.
The competences behind these figures increased and consolidated themselves during this term: by strengthening institutional relations, with the joining of UMinho and UTAD as associates; by increasing activity in projects, with emphasis on attracting European funding; by expanding laboratory infrastructures in different fields; and by actively reinforcing the international position, with the coordination of the UTAustin Portugal Program, the inclusion in three EIT KICs, the establishment of the INESC Brussels Hub and the creation of the International Relations Service.
Our 13 R&D Centres remain at the heart of science management, having evolved in the concept of Cluster and striving to consolidate the TEC4, in order to have a clear impact. Among the multiple internal initiatives in this field, it is important to highlight the Internal Seed Projects and the Data Science Hub.
As an Associate Laboratory, whose status of excellence was recently renewed for another 10 years, INESC TEC clearly asserts itself in the aforementioned aspects of internationalisation and scientific employment. Moreover, the strong contribution to public policies in different sectors, such as energy, industry or the sea, while supporting the diversification of the science, technology and innovation ecosystem, is also a quite noteworthy – mainly through the participation, as an associate, in nine Collaborative Laboratories, and in many working groups and public consultations.
The ability to mobilise internal and external competences, and to play a leading role in addressing the pandemic, materialised immediately during the lockdown, in March 2020 – with the production of 3D printed visors, the Diaries of a Pandemic, the development of the PNEUMA ventilator, the contribution to the free app Psicovida, the worldwide CoronaSurveys, the development of an Autonomous Robot for Disinfecting Hospitals, the COVID-19 Diagnostic System applied to X-ray images, and the development and implementation of the STAYAWAY COVID contact tracing app, among many others projects.
To conclude, and besides striving to improve in many areas, starting with the management support information systems, it is important to emphasise many cross-sectorial initiatives, in line with the best international practices, in order to qualify INESC TEC in new and important institutional dimensions. The work carried out to improve the Human Resources Management, to design the Conflict of Interest Management Policy, to comply with the GDPR, to assess the Social Responsibility practices as well as the Gender Equality measures, and to develop the Code of Ethics, will contribute to keep the institution focused on a very important set of questions addressed in today’s society.
Besides thanking all members of INESC TEC community for their professionalism and commitment in this endeavour, we would like to ask them to keep believing that through science and knowledge, we will contribute to a stronger country, able to face the challenging and disruptive years that await us.
José Manuel Mendonça (Chairman of the Board) and João Claro (Chief Executive Officer)
News, current topics, curiosities and so much more about INESC TEC and its community!
