CMU Portugal Program Directors at the AIR Center Conference
The CMU Portugal Program directors, José M. F. Moura and João Claro will be present at the “Atlantic Interactions: High Level Industry-Science-Government Dialogue” conference, this week in Ilha Terceira, Azores. This event will be hosting international delegations in the Portuguese island to discuss the creation of the Azores International Research Center (AIR Center).
The meeting of the more than 30 international delegations at the Academia da Juventude e das Artes, Praia da Vitória, will be “the first step towards the formalization of the AIR Center”, the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, said yesterday afternoon after a meeting in Ponta Delgada (island of S. Miguel) with Vasco Cordeiro, president of the Regional Government of the Azores. The preparation of the AIR Center project has involved Portuguese institutions, companies and universities, the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, the US Department of Energy and the three American universities that have partnerships with Portugal (MIT, Carnegie Mellon and University Texas in Austin).
Manuel Heitor explained that the international meeting already has about 200 confirmed participants and “it will be a dialogue between governments, industry and science to formalize the AIR Center by the end of the year.” The project integrates an agenda focused on space, energy, oceans and climate. “What is new on this agenda is the integrative way we approach the various issues,” the minister stressed.
Participants in the Praia da Vitória event will be government institutions from Europe, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, India and the USA, as well as large companies from France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and USA.
Read the Portuguese articles at Presidência do Governo Regional dos Açores – Notícias, Azores TV Online (April 10, 2017) Expresso Online (April 11, 2017), Jornal da Praia Online (April 13, 2017)
