New cooperation agreement between FCT and CNPq of Brazil

FCT and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), an entity linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations of Brazil and responsible for funding research in science and technology, started last November a new partnership, which aims to share information and develop joint projects between the curriculum management platforms CIÊNCIAVITAE (Portuguese) and Lattes (Brazilian). The video of the session in which the cooperation agreement was signed is available for viewing.

The fundamental objective of this protocol is to strengthen cooperation between Portugal and Brazil, in a continuation of the sharing of experience and best practices and active cooperation in the field of normative references, infrastructures and services for science and technology management. One of the first tasks will be to evaluate the compatibility of the CIÊNCIAVITAE and Lattes platforms, with a view to unifying the supporting software and eventually integrating the platforms.

Since 2014, FCT has dedicated efforts and invested in the modernization of its information systems, recognizing that the simplification of procedures inherent to the administrative management of the ecosystem of science, technology and higher education is essential to stimulate innovation and allow the democratization of access and production of knowledge. In this context, a new system for managing funding applications - the MyFCT - was developed and the PTCRIS program was launched which, through the development of standards and management infrastructures for science and technology, aims to ensure, on the one hand, the debureaucratization and simplification of administrative processes, and on the other, the production, management and access to reliable, complete and updated data, as a tool to support the effectiveness and efficiency of decision-making processes. The first system entirely based on the PTCRIS normative is CIÊNCIAVITAE, the national platform for the management of science and technology curricula.

These processes involved early collaboration with Brazil. The DeGóis platform, predecessor of CIÊNCIAVITAE and on whose code it was based, was the result of an agreement for the use of Lattes in Portugal, signed in 2005. In addition to this, in 2014/2015 FCT also established an agreement with the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT) for the sharing of experiences and good practices. It is in this context of historical cooperation between two countries in this field that the FCT signs this International Cooperation Agreement, foreseeing a mutual benefit.

Both CIÊNCIAVITAE and Lattes are fundamental for the scientific and technological management of the respective countries, investing in the simplification and integration of processes. Lattes was adopted by most of the fomentation institutions, universities and research institutes in Brazil, allowing the gathering of personal curriculum databases. Currently, Lattes includes more than 3.5 million CVs, research groups and institutions in a single information system. CIÊNCIAVITAE, based on the concept of scientific citizenship (CIÊNCIA ID), was realized in the format of an integrated and personalized repository of the path of researchers in science, aggregating several national and international information management systems, allowing to minimize the burden of bureaucratic processes and to comply with the principle "enter once, reuse multiple", giving also the possibility of personalization and promotion of the curriculum.

The integration of the curricula management platforms of Portugal and Brazil is a possibility of mutual interest for FCT and CNPq, which may enhance the development of a joint system, strongly collaborative, between the Portuguese-speaking countries.