The growth of the institution and the addition of new groups means changes for INESC Porto Associate Laboratory
In this year, so notoriously marked by the economic crisis, INESC Porto has increased its budget from 10 to 12.5 million Euros. However, this is actually one of the most conservative budgets so far: close to 90% of the predicted income has been contractually guaranteed since the beginning of the year. With his feet firmly on the ground the INESC Porto President admits that despite INESC Porto having practically doubled in size over the last five years, “this does not mean an obsession with records”. José Manuel Mendonça explains that a group effort from all of the collaborators will be necessary to maintain this sustainable growth and he recognises that guaranteeing a high level of quality while growing so rapidly will be an enormous challenge.
10th February 2011
1. “Three needs, three virtues and a fourfold approach” this is what will guide INESC Porto LA (Associate Laboratory) in its sustained growth in 2011. What constitutes this vision and in what way will it help INESC Porto LA achieve its objectives over this coming year?
This phrase may seem like the title of a parable full of eastern wisdom, but the idea of it is to sum up all of the elements that will determine our evolution in 2011in a comprehensible way. With this phrase we aim to share our vision with our stakeholders and assure them of our consistent actions and our clear strategy. The details of this vision are available in the Budget Plan for 2011 found on the intranet. This document not only proposes scientific activities, projects and scientific goals with regards to human resources and funding, but it also explains the strategy, defines objectives and supports management and control. Therefore, it is fundamental as a driving force for the institution.
2. Which of these guidelines will pose a major challenge for INESC Porto LA?
Despite the external constraints, the economic crisis, the new functional model of the University of Porto, NSRF (The National Strategic Reference Framework) regulations, LA contract renovations, etc., in my opinion the great challenge will come from within. This will be to rethink the structure and management model without abandoning the many methods of “continuous improvement” and at the same time opening up new routes for the future managers and leaders of the institution to emerge.
INESC Porto’s structure and management today was formed from a refined model of the institution in the 80s and 90s and this is one of the keys to its success. The (huge) challenge now is to evolve, maintaining the original DNA and bringing together the differentiating factors in order to respond to the challenges posed by the growth of the institution, the new LA model, the addition of the new groups, internationalisation, international programmes in partnership with MIT, CMU and UT Austin etc.
The Luso meeting and the discussion that revolved around five topics that are important to the institution will allow for greater involvement of collaborators at INESC Porto in strategic thinking. The outcome of this will certainly help in the challenge. The Scientific Advisory Board, with its external and evaluating international and independent vision, will also play a vital part. Finally, with INESC Porto as their strategic instrument, the commitment from the associates will complete the joint force that will confront this challenge.
3. One of the objectives announced in this Plan for 2011 will diversify the sources of income and funding, namely by strengthening direct R&D services and diversification in the market. Does the Board of Directors at INESC Porto see this diversification as a way of securing economic and financial sustainability at INESC Porto?
INESC Porto develops activities in projects within a chain of values: research, the development of technology and the transfer and valorisation of technology and knowledge. The result of this value chain is the production of science and highly qualified human resources. These assets are relevant to public interest and so therefore the funding comes from public investment. In downstream sectors there is a strong interest in the exclusive (or not) ownership of new knowledge and technology that could mean outstanding products, services and higher competiveness in the market for them.
Depending on the maturity of the technology or knowledge and the exclusivity of the ownership, the funding for these activities, cooperative R&D projects, R&D contracts, specialist consultancy or simple licensing, comes from public and private funds or exclusively from private funds.
In the financial model for INESC Porto, the FCT funds the fundamental R&D projects and downstream companies arrange exclusive contract work for applied R&D at an early development stage. The projects in consortium, funded by the NSRF or the 7th Framework Programme for Research from the EU, share the risk of investing public funds in companies developing technology and create bodies to develop and test technology, internationalise and progressively demonstrate the need for research in order to overcome the so called “valley of death” between fundamental science and relevant technological implementation.
Due to the fact that only scientific production of a high quality can generate potential, a balanced global financial model is mandatory in order for INESC Porto to hold a unique position and to be able to produce socially relevant R&D with the potential to create an economic impact.
This balance is not easy especially when taking into consideration the instability of the political and economic cycles that determine national and European funding and the need for investment in R&D. However, the balance is imperative in order to sustain the institution and for effective and efficient use of resources in order to reach our goals.
In the current stage of growth of INESC Porto and the Associate Laboratory in counter-cycle since 2008, it is mandatory to maintain an economic and financial balance and if possible reduce the dependence on national funding. This can be accomplished by increasing revenue from direct contracts with companies and strengthening sources of international funds, with European projects and above all R&D contracts and consultancy with international companies. As well as achieving a financial balance, this will mean that our work becomes even more relevant for the business world and being privy to international knowledge in many scientific areas, we can demonstrate that we are capable of exporting know-how and technology in diverse areas to an international market.
4. In 2010 the Budget reached the 10 million Euro mark. Are we going to break a record in 2011? What are the predictions and what is your opinion of the 2011 Budget? Is a 12.5 million Euro budget an excessive risk in times of crisis?
INESC Porto has almost doubled in size in the last five years, but this does not mean an obsession with records. The growth resulted from following an explicit strategy and it is easy to explain and justify. It came from the increase in activities in various areas in which our competencies are clearly confirmed, from attracting high quality researchers and R&D groups to our mission, from our positioning and our organisation of the research and our market-pull which is significant in many areas etc.
What is crucial is that this growth is sustainable and that it corresponds to a strategic aligning of activities, consolidating critical masses that allow us to respond better to the multiple challenges we face. This can be seen in our participation in different international partnership programmes with MIT, CMU and UT Austin, our close involvement in Clusters of Competitiveness and Technology, the launch of INESC R&D in Brazil in partnership with renown Brazilian universities and the launch of 10 spin-off companies to give value to the knowledge and technology that we develop in our R&D projects, etc.
Knowing that an increase in size would inevitably lead to an increased economic and financial risk, an increase in scientific production, of project control and team management, in preparation for this, information mechanisms and management strategies were defined and budget procedures and controls were improved. It should also be kept in mind that INESC Porto is a medium-sized company and the “shareholders” in the company, our associates, have the right to demand exemplary management “with no excuses”.
Therefore, in this year of growing uncertainty, the 2011 budget was created with even more rigor and even more careful analysis of the risk, as 90% of the predicted income has been contractually guaranteed from the beginning of the year.
5. The ROBIS group, that joined INESC Porto in 2009, has grown into a Unit in its own right that will be composed of researchers from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and researchers from the Higher Engineering Institute in Porto (ISEP). What is the balance of this integration into INESC Porto?
The integration of ROBIS was a notable success in many areas: in scientific production projects and contracts with companies, etc. Merit must be given to both sides for being able to swiftly and surely produce very interesting projects, as well as instigating cooperation between ROBIS and other Units and LA groups, aligning strategies and putting themselves at the head of joint interests and team spirit. It must be highlighted, however, that this would not have been possible without great belief from both sides and this confidence and trust has been developing at FEUP in teaching activities over many years.
The recognition of this success and confidence encourages us to help ROBIS grow through the fusion with the Autonomous Systems Laboratory (LSA) at ISEP. There is already great combatibility between them in terms of their scientific research areas and engineering competencies, and this has made ROBIS into an INESC Porto Unit. The creation of this unit has been fully overseen by ISEP. It is promising that even without this fusion being formalised, there are already projects running , namely in Brazil. We are just at the start of this process and it is possible that there will be difficulties to overcome, but there is no shortage of confidence. These processes must be accompanied and directed to bring advantages and benefits to the researchers and the institutions, in this case INESC Porto, FEUP and ISEP.
6. It appears that a new group, CISTER, that is currently integrated into ISEP, will join the Associate Laboratory in 2011. How did this come about and what are the capital gains that will come from it?
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) has attempted to combat the fragmentation of R&D groups and units and to stimulate scientific excellence by creating critical bodies in areas of high importance for the country. As a result of these policies, over the ten years following the millennium, the network of Associate Laboratories (LAs) emerged.
The advantages of this model for researchers and higher education institutions that take them in, the FCT and the MCTES, became obvious and requests were soon made to join the LAs by individual researchers and R&D units recognised and evaluated by the FCT. The additions of LIAAD, CRACS and UGEI along with CISTER (an R&D Unit recognised by the FCT and awarded the level of Excellent) all fall into this category. HASLab, a group from the University of Minho, is currently a privileged partner as it awaits evaluation by the FCT.
7. With the growth of ROBIS and the addition of CISTER, INESC Porto will be incorporating over 500 researchers, a number much larger than most Universities. Does this make you proud or concerned that the exponential growth may lead to a loss of quality?
Firstly, I would like to reiterate that we are not obsessed with the growth of INESC Porto and the LA. Our pride would come from the satisfaction of having accomplished this great mission. This is a pride that all collaborators at INESC Porto and the LA must all feel because it means that there are many researchers and grant holders, etc. that share our ideas and believe that our mission is relevant. Furthermore, they feel welcome in our institution in our management structure and they can identify with what we do here and can contribute daily with their effort, their creativity, their talent and their personal capacity to bring about successful projects, groups and units.
To be truthful, maintaining high levels of quality in rapid growth is an enormous challenge. It is much easier to control the quality of a small group, for example by limiting the entrance criteria. However, a small elite that is completely homogenous will find it difficult to produce results with a real impact, or at least according to our concept, which is research that is socially relevant with potential to have an economic impact. In order to create a body big enough, the competencies must be strengthened in key scientific areas while at the same time looking at the research capacities for developing technology and engineering. To have growth in a given area, looking for relevance and impact does not mean doubling the number of researchers in this area. What is needed is to consolidate a group of doctorate researchers into a team with knowledge in the areas of engineering and project management, etc., and with grant holders training in research activities.
8. We would like to invite you to leave a New Year’s message for all the inesqians about the challenges that they will meet in 2011 and the expectations that the institutions has of its collaborators.
With the effort from everyone, and only with everyone, will it be possible to overcome the difficulties that we will face and allow us to make clear moves to reach our objectives. We aim to construct a sustainable institution based on an innovative model of organisation of R&D activities and valuing knowledge, which is capable of being effective in transforming the economic and social fabric of the country and boosting its resources and competencies. This is a fundamental issue in these times.
If we achieve this, then we will have a reason to be proud because we will be able to return to society, with high interest, what they have invested in us.
Source: BIP January 2011