The 12th edition of the Prémios de Empreendedorismo e Inovação by Crédito Agrícola featured INESC TEC at the podium, this time with the Modular-E robot winning the category “New Technologies in Agricultural Production”.

João Claro, Chairman and CEO of INESC TEC, has been elected member of the Board of Directors of the TTO Circle, the European network promoted by the European Commission that brings together Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) from leading Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) across Europe. INESC TEC is the only Portuguese institution represented in this initiative, with João Claro now serving on the Board for a three-year term.

What if underwater fibre optic cables could not only “listen” to ships, but also estimate their speed and trajectory? While these cables are mostly known for connecting the world to the Internet, they could also become an important complement to the current Automatic Identification System (AIS) for maritime traffic monitoring.  

The right of any citizen to access decisions taken in municipal council meetings, the main issues discussed, the way votes were cast and the substance of each decision that, in practice, affects their daily lives is undeniable. Likewise, enabling journalists to check the minutes of these meetings in search of newsworthy topics - reducing reliance on official press releases and improving public scrutiny - is fundamental to democracy. But what happens when basic democratic rights face practical barriers? When consulting minutes to find a specific topic means wading through hundreds of pages in a slow and inefficient search? Under such conditions, does transparency exist only in a formal sense, rather than in practice?