Companies are again crucial partners in an agreement between the Government and CMU (Updated)

COLLAB distinguished with the APDC / Siemens Innovation Award

The agreement signed today between the University of Carnegie Mellon and the Portuguese Government once again privileges the involvement of companies, which participated in the protocol from the first moment. Portugal Telecom, Novabase and Siemens are highlighted, but the agreement links 15 technology-based SMEs, among which are Critical Software, SkySoft Portugal, Altitude Software and Priberam Informática.

Minister Mariano Gago praised the role of these companies and their commitment to the development of the agreement, but also the commitments made.

In addition to co-financing the program, the companies that currently sign the protocol have agreed to involve human and operational resources, increase their investment in R&D and establish levels of hiring doctorates and masters as part of this collaboration with CMU.

«Our ambition is to use the program’s opportunity to stimulate a new context of innovation in Portugal,» added Manuel Heitor, Secretary of State for Science and Technology, who added that Portugal Telecom has committed to co-finance the program and involve resources , in addition to doubling its internal investment in R&D until 2009, reaching 1.5 percent of total turnover by 2011.

A similar commitment was made by Novabase, with the same goal of achieving investment in R&D of 1.5 percent by 2009, but Siemens goes further with the investment target, in Portugal, of 5% of turnover in R&D and hiring 10 doctorates per month until the end of 2009, as well as 25 new specialist contracts in the next 5 years.

The small technology-based companies involved have also pledged to double their investment in R&D, carried out intra-walls, or achieve at least 5 percent of turnover by 2009. The commitment also extends to the number of doctorates reaching 5% of its staff or that guarantee at least 1 new doctor contract until the end of 2009, guaranteeing values ​​similar to the best international practices

In addition to the companies already mentioned, the program includes Enabler Informática, ISA, MNI, Mobicomp and Multicert, as well as companies associated with INOVA-RIA (Association of Companies for an Innovation Network in Aveiro), such as Maisis, Micro I / O, Ponto C, Present Technologies, Rederia, Shortcut and Telbit.

Editorial Note: [2006-10-27 12:38] The news has been updated with more information.

Related News:

2006-10-27 – Agreement with CMU provides for the creation of an Institute with two operating poles