14 Jul 2025
Portugal holds Enhanced Dialogue with EC centred on aligning national reforms with EU priorities
The Portuguese Minister for Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, the Secretary of State for Science, Helena Canhão, and the Secretary of State for Higher Education, Cláudia Sarrico, hosted a European Commission delegation led by Director-General Marc Lemaître, from 10–11 July 2025 to initiate the Enhanced Dialogue on Research and Innovation (R&I).
The Enhanced Dialogue centered on aligning Portugal’s R&I planned reforms with EU strategies, including the European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda and future ERA Act, discussing the Start-up and Scale-up Strategy and Portugal’s acitvities to support the startup ecosystem, and on the newly published Life Sciences Strategy and its application in the health sector.
João Rui Ferreira and Ana Povo, the Portuguese Secretaries of State for the Economy and for Health also joined the discussions. Moreover, key stakeholders, including regional authorities, academic leaders, such as the Presidents of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and of the National Innovation Agency (ANI), and representatives from industry and public health institutions, participated. In total, more than 30 representatives from the Portuguese R&I community attended the discussions. Magda De Carli, Beñat Bilbao Osorio, Chiara Aprea, Andreea Ticheru and Catherine Berens from the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation also joined Marc Lemaître in the meetings.
The event, held in Carcavelos, near Lisbon, was organised back-to-back with the Encontro Ciência 2025, the annual flagship event on R&I of Portugal. Director-General Marc Lemaître gave a keynote speech at the event, which highlighted the importance of R&I for competitiveness and the role that European framework programmes for R&I play. The European Commission delegation also visited the exhibition of EC2025 which showcased Portugal’s cutting-edge research and innovation projects.
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