FCT Programs
About The Program Governance Contacts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Information Processing and Networking Critical Infrastructures and Risk Assessment Technology, Innovation and Policy Applied Mathematics
Governance

The Program has been planned to be governed by a single virtual institution, the Information and Communication Technologies Institute (ICTI), with two poles: ICTI@CMU, resident at CMU, and ICTI@Portugal, resident in Portugal. The Institute has a unified administration: a Board of Directors (BoD), an External Review Committee (ERC), and the directors of each pole.

Board of Directors

This Board includes the following members:

  • João Sentieiro, President of the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), who chairs the Board;
  • Luís Magalhães, President of UMIC, representative of the Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, MCTES;
  • Jared Cohon, President of CMU;
  • Pradeep Khosla, Dean of CIT, the College of Engineering at CMU;
  • Victor Barroso, Director of ICTI@Portugal;
  • José F. Moura, Director of ICTI@CMU;

The Board exercises its responsibilities by reviewing and approving the report on the activities of the Institute, its next year plan of activities, its annual budget, and proposals for potential new areas of collaboration. The Board has final arbitration over all matters regarding the Institute.

The Board should meet at least twice a year, with one face-to face meeting and other by video conferencing. The two directors (i.e., the Director of ICTI@Portugal and the Director of ICTI@CMU) form a Directorate that meets frequently for the daily running of ICTI.

External review committee (ERC)

The External Review Committee (ERC), nominated by the President of the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and Chair of the Board of Directors, reviews annually the activities of the Information and Communication Technologies Institute suggesting possible changes to the Institute’s programs, including the launching of new programs or the cancelling of existing programs.

Professor Sir John O'Reilly, Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University, UK, is the Chair of the External Review Committee.

ICTI: internal organization

The activities of ICTI are divided in two major groups: Research activities that include the research and PhD programs, and the educational activities that include the different advanced degree programs. The two Directors of ICTI (in Portugal and at CMU) appoint Research Directors and Education Directors at each pole to head ICTI’s research activities and educational activities. The Research and Education Directors help the two Directors to run the Institute’s educational and research programs.

The two Directors, as well as the Research Directors and Education Directors, may be advised by Advisory Boards that help define the research and educational agenda of the Institute. The members of the Advisory Boards are chosen among the Research Directors, Education Directors, Coordinators, and PIs of the Institute’s areas and programs. It also includes members of companies and institutions involved with the activities of the Institute.

Fellows

Faculty, graduate students, and post-docs associated or supported by the Institute will receive an appointment as “CMU-Portugal Fellows” with the corresponding rights and responsibilities, namely, in terms of a co-affiliation with a Portuguese University. As a best practice, given that faculty are periodically reviewed in US Universities, the Institute will establish mechanisms for the periodic review of “CMU-Portugal Fellows”. This review will be activity and curriculum based.

Industrial affiliates program

The Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) in close collaboration with the Directors of the two poles of ICTI will establish an industrial affiliates program to promote the active participation of Portuguese and multinational companies in defining its research and education agenda. The degree of involvement can vary, but the criteria are to be defined by the Board of Directors. Companies can be expected to fund graduate students in the advanced degree programs, to be involved in the studio components (namely of the Master of Software Engineering, among others to be established) and to provide internships to projects in the other Master of Science programs, tying the students’ projects to real firm needs. Companies can fund doctoral students. Companies are also expected to support research projects of common interest to ICTI Partners and the Company. Finally, all the companies to be affiliated to the CMU-Portugal Program (and, therefore, to ICTI) are expected to make their own compromise to strengthen their investment in R&D and to help increasing the business expenditure in R&D (i.e., BERD) in Portugal, as measured by international standards (namely EUROSTAT and the OCDE). This should include the compromise of employing every year qualified experts and doctorates.

Portugal Telecom (PT) is the coordinator of the industrial affiliate program, according to the terms described in the contract signed by PT and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT).

Links with governmental organizations

Besides the involvement with private corporations, the CMU-Portugal Program and ICTI will establish partnerships with other Institutions and Agencies. In particular, two governmental agencies have been recognized as main partners of ICTI, namely: “UMIC - The Agency for the Knowledge Society”; and “FCCN – Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional”, the national foundation for scientific computation.

Other national agencies and governmental departments in Portugal are expected to be involved in the program. In particular the national telecom regulatory authority, ANACOM, is expected to join an institutional affiliation program.

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