New funding and research collaboration opportunities with the MIT Portugal Program are now open to Portuguese and MIT researchers, as well as companies. The Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) has opened a competition to fund research projects in the context of a mid-course strategic reexamination by the MIT Portugal Program that identified priority areas of research: sustainable energy and transportation systems; stem cell engineering for regenerative medicine; and materials and design-inspired products. The Call is open to proposals for joint research in these three areas, as well as in the fundamentals of engineering systems. The Call assumes a partnership of at least two different research centers in Portugal, with the participation of at least one company, governmental or other independent non-academic organization, and one research team at MIT. The number of funded projects is not foreseen to exceed 10. The total funding allocated in this Call is two million Euros, and the maximum funding for each project will be 200,000 Euros over a period of up to 36 months. Proposals – which must be submitted to the FCT by November 13, 2009 – will be evaluated by an independent international committee. Funded projects are anticipated to start on January 1, 2010. Prof. Paulo Ferrão, National Director of MIT Portugal, and Prof. Daniel Roos, Director of MIT Portugal at MIT, said the competition will for the first time involve joint funding by MIT and the FCT of activities at MIT and in Portugal, and that the FCT-funded projects will help MIT Portugal to achieve its new strategic goals. The competition will give priority to those proposals that are well aligned with the Program's new areas of priority research and also show support and co-financing by industry partners. Full terms of the competition – including the Call edital (in Portuguese and in English), Terms of Reference for the competition, proposal-writing guidelines, and specific information for proposers from MIT are available. | 
