The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has enacted the legislation establishing a new institute, approving its organizational structure, and dissolving both the Directorate-General for Higher Education and the National Agency Erasmus+ for Education and Training. This decision was shared through an official statement on the Presidency’s website.
The decree-law received approval from the Council of Ministers on September 4 during a session where they also sanctioned the creation of the Agency for Research and Innovation. The President has yet to comment on this new entity.
This agency will assume the roles previously managed by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the National Investment Association (ANI).
In late August, while enacting a decree that dissolved other bodies within the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation (MECI), but outside the higher education sector, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed concerns about the dissolution of the FCT.
He had previously voiced his apprehensions as soon as the government announced the MECI’s service reorganization plan.
At that time, he warned that if he had reservations “about any aspect” of the dissolution of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), he would request the government to reconsider the decree, and if the administration persisted, he might veto it.
MECI, currently comprising 18 entities and 27 senior officials across non-higher education and the sectors of education, science, and innovation, will reduce to only seven entities and 27 senior officials, with the integration of dissolved entities into new ones.
According to a presentation by Minister Fernando Alexandre two weeks ago following the decree-law’s promulgation establishing the Agency for Research and Innovation, the ministry plans to engage with the scientific community first.
Only after this consultation will the Council of Ministers issue a resolution on strategic challenges and budgetary allocation, followed by the signing of the multi-annual program contract to commence the new agency’s activities.
