Unlocking Global Innovation: MIT-Portugal Program Enters New Era

The MIT-Portugal Program (MPP) has officially launched its fourth phase, marking a significant milestone in the program’s nearly two-decade history. The new phase, which will run from 2025 to 2030, aims to further explore innovative ideas and solutions in various fields, including artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, energy, climate change, and space.

Since its inception in 2006, MPP has established a strong partnership between MIT and the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), fostering collaboration among researchers and institutions across both countries. The program has achieved numerous successes, including enabling 47 entrepreneurial spinoffs, funding over 220 joint projects, and training a generation of exceptional researchers.

The launch of MPP’s Phase 4 marks a new chapter in the program’s history, with a focus on continued exploration of innovative ideas and solutions. The program will support research projects across various fields, including chips/nanotechnology, energy, artificial intelligence, and space.

‘We are opening up the aperture for additional collaboration areas,’ says ‘John Hansman, co-director of MPP.’ ‘We’d like to involve many more people and new people here at MIT, as well as in Portugal, so that we can reach a larger slice of the population.’_

MPP’s success is built on a strong foundation of trust and collaboration between researchers and institutions across both countries. The program has facilitated numerous joint projects, including development of Portugal’s CubeSat satellite, which marked the country’s second satellite launch in 30 years.

“The international collaboration has allowed us to test and further develop our research prototypes in different aquaculture environments both in the US and in Portugal,” says ‘Stefanie Mueller, leader of the Human-Computer Interaction Group at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.’

MPP’s impact extends beyond the scientific community, with significant contributions to Portugal’s educational, technological, and economic progress over the past two decades. The program has played a key role in shaping Portugal’s entrepreneurial landscape, with many start-up companies emerging from Portuguese universities.

“The Portugal of today is remarkably stronger than the Portugal of 20 years ago, and many of the places where they are stronger have been impacted by the program,” says ‘Hansman.’

As MPP enters its next phase, co-directors Douglas Hart and John Hansman are optimistic about the program’s continued success. They envision broadening the program’s impact to include new areas of focus, such as social sciences and humanities.

I think, at this point, the research is going really well, and we’ve got a lot of connections, says ‘Hart.’ I think one of our goals is to expand not the science of the program necessarily, but the groups involved.”

The MIT-Portugal Program’s fourth phase marks an exciting new chapter in the program’s history, with a focus on continued exploration of innovative ideas and solutions. As MPP looks to the future, it remains committed to fostering collaboration among researchers and institutions across both countries, driving progress in various fields and contributing to Portugal’s growth as a global leader in science, technology, and innovation.