International Relations Service
The International Relations Service (SRI) was established on the 1st of January of 2020 to support the Board of Administration (BA) in the conception, implementation and monitoring of INESC TEC’s overall internationalisation strategy. The support provided by the service, which reports directly to the BA and builds on the international experience gained by the organisation throughout the years, intends to be manifold and bring new breadth and depth to INESC TEC’s commitment to active global presence.
SRI’s activities spread across three operational areas:
- International Cooperation: This area encompasses working closely with the BA to identify and develop new or strengthen existing international institutional partnerships; negotiating, preparing and monitoring overarching international partnership agreements, such as Memoranda of Understanding; liaise with external contacts to prospect relevant internationalisation opportunities aligned with INESC TEC’s competencies, assets and priorities; manage international S&T partnerships on behalf of third parties such as the UT Austin Portugal Program, an international partnership between the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the University of Texas at Austin.
- International Mobility: This area includes both the support to the induction of foreign talent and the assistance to staff wishing to spend some time abroad in a host organisation with the purpose of acquiring new knowledge, forging new research collaborations, conducting and / or participating in lectures or courses or taking part in joint research activities.
- International Culture: This area involves activities aimed at embedding internationalisation in the organisation’s mindset and valuing cultural diversity. The service works as a front door for international partners (hosting of international delegations and high-profile visitors); develops and monitors indicators to capture and communicate the organisation’s international activity and performance; works to educate INESC TEC’s R&D Centres to keep the records of their international activities up-to-date for monitoring, reporting and profile-raising purposes; and promotes and nurtures an international-oriented culture.
Besides its core team, the service also counts on senior market developers who act as listening posts to a few strategic markets abroad.
