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Editorial
Following the plan announced by FCT, which states that an assessment exercise of Portuguese research units will be conducted in the fall of 2023, the IT Board of Directors has decided to commence preparations for this process by organizing visits of the Advisory Board.
Three years ago, IT made the decision to alter the composition of its Advisory Board to align it with the dual objectives we have for IT: the creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge, as well as the support for high-level training of young engineers and scientists; and, as a natural complement to that, to promote technology transfer to the industry and address public policies and societal challenges. Consequently, we transformed the three scholars we have been working with, namely Prof. John O'Reilly, Prof. Touradj Ebrahimi, and Prof. Dominique Schreurs, into the Scientific Committee of the Advisory Board; and we extended invitations to three additional individuals, Prof. José Franca, Dr. António Salcedo, and Prof. Eduardo Maldonado, to form the Business Committee of the same board.
Although the schedules we suggested for the visits of these two advisory committees were similar, the Business Committee focused on IT's interactions with industry and society, while the Science Committee's visit was centered around more traditional academic-like scientific and training activities. Reports containing their recommendations will be provided within a few weeks, but they have already kindly offered us some preliminary feedback. Alongside several specific recommendations, both committees addressed a few of our main challenges, revealed in the presentations by the Research Groups and the Board of Directors. These challenges involve demonstrating the excellent work being carried out by our institution as a whole and presenting a strategic outlook for the institution and all its mission components. This entails leveraging on IT's critical mass and the multidisciplinary nature of its Research Lines and Applications Areas.
These recommendations require careful consideration to ensure that these challenges, which are more related to presentation than essence, are appropriately addressed when IT presents itself for the FCT assessment exercise. While I have no doubt that IT's scientific and technology transfer activities hold significant merit and excel in several R&D fields, I must acknowledge that we need to improve in showcasing its value. Thus, we rely on all of IT's students, technicians, and clerks, but especially its researchers, to assist us in improving this aspect so that we can achieve the classification of "Excellent" that IT deserves.
José Carlos Pedro
(President)
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