The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology announced in Angra do Heroísmo an estimated investment of 180 thousand Euros for regional research centres, which represents an increase of 41 thousand Euros compared to 2016, adding that these institutions will now have new evaluation criteria.
 
Gui Menezes spoke during a visit to the Research Institute for Agricultural Technology and the Environment (IITAA), where he met with the director and the research teams. The government official stressed that the "new model" for the evaluation of centres, which will be carried out every two years, has "different weights for different criteria" in order to enhance their connection to the business community and internationalisation.
 
In this regard, the Secretary for Science mentioned that the Government will assess the actions of knowledge transfer to companies and the number of projects developed with international institutions; these criteria "will be increased" with a 33% weight in the overall assessment of the centres.
 
In addition to these criteria, the evaluation process also takes into account the number of doctoral or post-doctoral fellows developing research works at the centres as well as the dissemination of project results.
 
Gui Menezes reminded that the Government will launch another edition of the tender to support scientific research projects under RIS3 with the allocation of 2.9 million Euros, being "a very significant investment for science." He also stressed the launch of an application for 12 doctoral grants and six post-doctoral grants in business context.
 
During this visit, the Regional Secretary praised the scientific work that is being developed at IITAA, highlighting the "great relevance" that the food technology related to agriculture and livestock to the Azores, "given the importance of these sectors to the Region."
 
IITAA has three research groups: the first is dedicated Agriculture and Livestock, the second to Climate, Environment and Landscape and the third to Food Science and Health.
 
Gui Menezes pointed out that the visits to research centres aim "to promote proximity to researchers, know the lines of research of each centre and the projects under development, and collect contributions to help the Azorean Government to better define scientific policies in the Region."