Portugal takes over the Presidency of the 5+5 Dialog Research, Innovation and Higher Education

Portugal will have the mission to chair the 5+5 Dialogue on Research, Innovation and Higher Education for the period 2022-24. The announcement was made at the 5th Ministerial Conference held as part of this forum, where Portugal was represented by the President of the Foundation for Science and Technology, Madalena Alves. The conference took place last October 11, in Nouakchott, Mauritania, still under the presidency of Mauritania and vice-presidency of Italy for the period 2019-2022.

From this Ministerial Conference was issued a Ministerial Declaration and respective Work Plan for the next biennium, signed by the Ministerial representatives of the 5+5 countries that constitute this Dialogue on both shores of the Mediterranean, namely Spain, France, Italy, Malta and Portugal; Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia. This Ministerial Declaration aims to build the "Partnership for Scientific Research, Innovation and Higher Education to promote cooperation, social cohesion, youth employment and sustainable development in the Western region".

For Portugal, the main objective of this Presidency will be to promote cooperation, social cohesion, youth employment and sustainable development of this region through the implementation of new networking tools, fostering research linked to socio-economic development and open cooperation for research and innovation (R&I), as the institutional ecosystems of R&I and Higher Education are strengthened, promoting quality assurance and blended learning practices for skills development and circulation of talent, with a focus on the Blue Sustainable Economy.

Portugal embraces this challenging mission with conviction and strong commitment, in a joint effort that will certainly strengthen and consolidate the cooperation between the scientific communities of all the countries in this Dialogue.