The UT Austin Portugal Program supports eight exploratory research projects promoted by Portuguese institutions and the University of Texas, in Austin, for a total of around 730.000€.

31st August 2020

In 2019, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) opened a call to support exploratory research projects carried out by teams of researchers from the National Scientific and Technological System (SCTN) and the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), within the scope of the UT Austin Portugal International Partnership. There were 58 proposals, with a budget allocation to fund up to a maximum of eight initiatives.

The development of new nanomaterials for energy production, for the emission of terahertz waves, or even for the potential creation of new vaccines; the reuse of offshore platforms for offshore wind power; the automatic planning of treatments for cancer patients using proton radiotherapy, thus providing increasingly personalised therapeutic options; the development of PM (Persistent Memory) applications and databases and the creation a new generation of storage systems for HPC infrastructures. These are the objectives of the eight exploratory projects funded, with an expected duration of one year.

These projects are short-term and goal-oriented, addressing emergent and transformative R&D topics, in order to achieve a higher level of technology readiness - i.e. they must be able to demonstrate tangible technological advances, thus contributing to the development of science-based solutions to real-world problems.

The supported projects cover all scientific areas of the Program - Advanced Computing, Medical Physics, Nanotechnologies and Space-Earth Interactions -, mobilising nine research institutions in Portugal, as well as eight lead researchers from UT Austin and the MD Anderson Cancer Center (part of the University of Texas).

The maximum eligible investment per project was set on 50.000€ for the Portuguese research teams, supplemented with an equivalent amount of dollars to the research teams of the North-American partner - provided by the UT Austin Portugal Program. In total, FCT's contribution to national entities is 390.370,22€.

More information about funded projects here.

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About the UT Austin Portugal: the UT Austin Portugal Program started in 2007; it is a Science and Technology partnership between the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. In 2018, the partnership was renewed until 2030, towards a new decade. After ten years of collaboration, UT Austin Portugal and the Portuguese institutions continue to develop a collaborative effort to promote a thriving research agenda, strongly aligned with the country's national strategy, in five major areas: Advanced Computing; Nanotechnologies; Space-Earth interactions; Medical Physics and Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

Porto - August 31, 2020

For media-related enquiries:

Eunice Oliveira

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INESC TEC

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Portugal

M +351 93 224 331

eunice.i.oliveira@inesctec.pt