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Thirteen Companies Sign Affiliation Agreements

The shared goal of the Government of Portugal and the MIT Portugal Program to accelerate innovation in biotechnology in Portugal through research–industry partnerships was advanced on October 6, 2008, when four major pharmaceutical and industrial companies, as well a nine start-up biotech companies, signed affiliation agreements with MIT Portugal.

The ceremony—which coincided with the second anniversary of MIT Portugal—took place at the Program’s “Bioengineering: Trends and Opportunities” conference in Lisbon. Signing on behalf of the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) was its president, Prof. João Sentieiro.

MIT Portugal's Program Operating Committee — which is responsible for developing and approving annual plans in the Program's focus areas — will meet in Lisbon on 21 October 2008.

Program leaders from MIT and Portugal will be in attendance, together with the focus area leads and other representatives of MIT Portugal's programs in bioengineering systems, engineering design and advanced manufacturing, sustainable energy systems, and transportation systems.

From September 21-24, MIT leaders in Cambridge hosted a productive series of meetings and site visits with several Portugese companies and visitors from industry, academia and government.  It is hoped that these events—which highlighted the ways in which MIT cultivates relationships between academia and industry—will help to encourage industry involvement in the MIT Portugal Program.

Participants from Portugal included Manuel Heitor, Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education; Vasco Varela, Executive Director, International Partnerships (FCT); Antonio Cunha, Dean, School of Engineering, University of Minho; and Professor Paulo Ferrao, Director of MIT Portugal in Lisbon.  Also participating were representatives from UTEN (University Technology Enterprise Network)—a network of technology transfer offices in the main schools of engineering within Portugal—and senior executives from several Portuguese companies affiliated with the MIT Portugal Program.

Ph.D. student Maya Abou-Zeid recently answered questions about her studies in Transportation Systems, and how she came to be involved with the MIT Portugal Program.

MPP: What is your hometown, and what degree are you pursuing?

Abou-Zeid: I’m from Beirut, Lebanon, and am working toward a Ph.D. in Transportation at MIT.

MPP: Where did you do your previous studies?

Abou-Zeid: At the American University of Beirut, in Civil Engineering, and at MIT, where I got an M.Sc. in Transportation in 2003.

MPP: Have you had any work experience?

Abou-Zeid: Yes. For two-and-a-half years after my Master’s degree, I worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chevy Chase, Maryland, for Cambridge Systematics, a transportation consulting firm. Then I decided to come back to MIT, in January 2006.