Most Portuguese companies export without a proprietary technological base, and only one in ten exporting companies invests consistently in R&D, says Jorge Portugal, Director-General of COTEC Portugal, the country’s leading association for the promotion of innovation and technological cooperation. “It is precisely companies with proprietary knowledge and highly qualified human resources that are best prepared to compete in demanding international markets”, he stresses. According to the COTEC Portugal executive, strengthening the link between business and academia is no longer an option but has become a core condition for growth and value-based internationalisation. “Cooperation between companies and academia cannot be sporadic nor rely solely on isolated projects”.
How has COTEC sought to develop links between universities, research centres and companies?
COTEC has been developing these links in an increasingly structured and results-oriented manner, based on the conviction that coordination between companies and academia cannot be episodic or reliant solely on isolated projects. Over recent years, and particularly consistently over the past three, COTEC has acted as a qualified intermediary, creating spaces for dialogue, experimentation and joint learning between companies, universities and research centres.
This approach has taken the form of dozens of sessions held in both academic and business settings, focused on advanced training, particularly doctoral education, as a strategic instrument of competitiveness.The aim was not merely to bring stakeholders closer together, but also to understand how to better align the supply of advanced knowledge with the real needs of companies, and how companies themselves must be organised in order to absorb and leverage that knowledge.
Read the full interview here.
