The New University of Lisbon, The University of Porto, and The University of Texas at Austin will collaborate to create digital media centers of education and research excellence to be located at each university as follows:

• New University of Lisbon: The Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT/UNL); Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH/UNL); and School of Economics (FE/UNL).
• University of Porto: Faculties of Engineering, Fine Arts, Humanities and Economics, and INESC Porto.
• The University of Texas at Austin: The College of Communication Radio, Television Film Dept., along with the School of Journalism, the College of Fine Arts, the Computer Science Dept., and the Digital Media Collaboratory.

INESC Porto and related centers at FCT/UNL will be key research institute participants in this program. The College of Communication at UT-Austin is the largest in the US with over 10,000 students and includes the Departments of Journalism, Advertising, Radio-Television-Film, Communication Studies, and Speech Disorders as well as the Strauss Institute for Civic Participation; UT Film Institute, Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute; and Knight Centre for International Journalism. PhD and MA programs include Filming for Media; On-Line Journalism; Digital Television; Multi-Channel Journalism; Globalization and International Communication; Technology, Policy, and Information; and History, Theory, Criticism of Film, TV, and New Media as well as a MFA in Production Screenwriting. Media Studies include theory, criticism, technology, history, and business; bridging disciplines program in digital arts, and communication, information, and cultural policy. IC² Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, will work with the Digital Media Program and associated industry affiliates programs to foster innovation and business development based on new media technologies and processes, and for access to international markets.

The overall goal is to have students explore media technologies and their design implications as well as the evolving connections between technology, design, social and cultural domains, and business development. The curriculum for the planned Master degree will be stronger in hands-on production and experimentation, while the PhD degree will add theory, methodology and critical discourse to these initial areas. Core courses in new research methods for both degrees will allow students to start developing strategies and visions for medium-term research projects. The Digital Media Program will include post-graduate courses and professional workshops in new media. The emphasis will be on emerging challenges in entrepreneurship and technology venturing associated with new media technology content creation, production and exhibition, and applicable in international markets.

Research and education initiatives will focus on the creation, exhibition and distribution processes associated with new media as well as other intellectual areas of interest to Portugal and The University of Texas at Austin. These initiatives will include wireless and mobile industry technologies, digital information content, and new media production and distribution such as:

• Digital and interactive media and new distribution systems over the Internet for portable devices, large displays, and small screens;
• Video gaming and documentary media, including content amenable to wireless and mobile technologies;
• Digital journalism, participatory media, and interactive documentary media in interactive environments;
• Community-empowering technologies such as open-source and wiki-style content creation;
• E-Learning technologies with an emphasis on standards-compliant technologies for web accessibility;
• Advanced digital media solutions and systems, including wireless technologies and systems for new media distribution and technology for people unskilled in digital communication and processes;
• Research skills needed for developing or adapting technology to various systems and audiences or users;
• Innovation research and the process of technical change encompassing an understanding of the global media context, and the identification and cultivation of new ideas, processes, and markets for media technologies and content;
• Assessing and minimizing the digital divide in Portugal and perhaps other Portuguese-speaking countries.

A network of research centers and academic departments will collaborate to create a program on advanced computing, with education programs at the Ph.D. level, and research to be located at the following universities:

• LAETA, Laboratory for Energy, Transports and Aeronautics, Associate Laboratory
• LIP, Laboratory for Particle Physics in Lisbon, Associate Laboratory
• New University of Lisbon: Department of Computer Science at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (CS-FCT-UNL);
• Technical University of Lisbon: Through the Instituto Superior Técnico (ISTUTL), including IDMEC-Institute for Mechanical Engineering, ICIST- Institute for Structural Engineering, Territory and Construction, and the Centre for Plasma Physics (PPC-IST)
• University of Aveiro; Through Research Units IT and IEETA and the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics (DETI)
• University of Coimbra:
  • the Dependable Systems Group of the Department of Computer Science (DSG-CS-UC);
  • Centre for Computational Physics (CFC-UC).
• University of Minho: Department of Computer Science (CS-UM);
• University of Porto;
• The University of Texas at Austin:
  • Department of Computer Science (CS-UTA);
  • Department of Electric and Computer Engineering (ECE-UTA);
  • Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES);
  • Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), Distributed & Advanced Computing Group

In Portugal, the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and the Portuguese National Science Foundation (FCT) have recently launched the Portuguese National GRID Initiative (INGRID) and should be actively involved as governmental organizations.

Advanced and grid computing enables the integration of computers, data repositories, and scientific instruments into a vast cyber-infrastructure that will allow scientists, engineers, and information technology workers to become more productive, thereby stimulating the economy of nations. The mission of the UTAustin’s Distributed & Grid Computing Group at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is to develop and deploy new software technologies that help connect and aggregate advanced computing systems (HPC, storage, visualization, networks, etc.) into powerful computational grids.

The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) and a number of Portuguese higher education institutions, research centers and companies plan to conduct research in the field of advanced and grid computing and to offer joint educational programs. Joint research to enhance and take advantage of advanced computing capabilities will be conducted by the Department of Computer Science (CS-UTA), the Department of Electric and Computer Engineering (ECE-UTA), the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES), and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at UT-Austin, together with the Department of Computer Science at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (CS-FCTUNL), the Dependable Systems Group of the Department of Computer Science at the Universidade de Coimbra (DSG-CSUC), and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Minho (CSUM), These Institutions will also pursue joint educational programs at the M.Sc. and Ph.D. levels. They will also engage in the development of applications that use advanced computing together with TACC, the Laboratory for Particle Physics in Lisbon (LIP), Critical Software S.A. (CSW) and the Center for Computational Physics in the University of Coimbra (CFC-UC).

The UT Austin-Portugal program will include a specific program in the area of mathematics with emphasis on a PhD program, together with a joint research agenda, which will be implemented through collaborative actions involving research centers and academic departments in the following institutions:

• New University of Lisbon: Through the Department of Mathematics and associated research centers at The School of Science and Technology (FCTUNL)
• Technical University of Lisbon: Through the Department of Mathematics and associated research centers at Instituto Superior Técnico (ISTUTL)
• University of Coimbra: Through the Department of Mathematics and associated research centers at the School of Sciences and Technology UC (FCTUC)
• University of Lisbon: Through the Department of Mathematics and associated research centers at the School of Sciences (FCUL)

Nonlinear analysis and partial differential equations, numerical analysis, optimization, combinatorics, probability and stochastic are some of the areas essential to modern science, engineering and finance in which the research groups in the institutions above have developed considerable expertise. The modeling of complex phenomena and applications in diverse areas such as computational biology, financial engineering, computer vision, the web, and the design of modern aircraft, for example requires sophisticated mathematics. Modern science rests on the dynamic interplay between experiment, modeling, simulation and theory as never before, in a constantly deepening interaction. As a result, the UT Austin-Portugal Program will bring together the complementary expertise of mathematicians and other scientists from several institutions into research interactions that will: (i) pull together the available scientific and mathematical expertise to contribute in a significant way to the modern challenges; and (ii) foster the education and development of scientists who can better respond to the challenges of these new scientific and technological realities.

The UTAustin-Portugal program will include a consortium of Portuguese universities and research centers with The IC² Institute (www.ic2.org) of The University of Texas at Austin to accelerate processes of science and technology innovation and commercialization focusing on US market access. Selected Portuguese universities and research centers will form a University Technology Enterprise Network (UTEN). Initially these institutions will include all the main technology transfer offices (i.e., “OTIC”) and also the main offices for promotion of industrial property (i.e., “GAPI”) in Portuguese universities and main science parks, as well as research centers involved in technology commercialization and incubation. Table 1 gives the proposed complete list of institutions to launch UTEN in Portugal, which will be coordinated by a national secretariat at the Innovation Agency, AdI, in order to facilitate the cooperation with UT-Austin and the necessary allocation of funds among the various institutions on a competitive basis.

The University Technology Enterprise Network (UTEN) will work to have a unified management structure that will coordinate activities and programs across universities and research centers and to leverage existing regional infrastructure and personnel located at the participating institutions. It is expected that over time the institutional members of UTEN will develop increasingly interrelated programs across organizational and institutional boundaries to support the common objective of world-class research and education leading to accelerated science and technology-based enterprise innovation and commercialization. UTEN activities and programs will be directly linked to the IC² Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. Particularly relevant IC² Institute activities and programs include:

• The Austin Technology Incubator (www.ati.utexas.edu)
• Technology Commercialization Training Programs (commerce.ic2.org)
• MS Degree in Science & Technology Commercialization (msstc.ic2.org)
• The IC² Fellows and Global Programs (www.ic2.org)

IC² Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, will collaborate with the Portuguese Innovation Agency and the designated Portuguese entities to develop and implement science and technology commercialization and enterprise innovation research, education, and training programs that will be customized to specific technology sectors and regional needs in Portugal. This will involve sector-specific entrepreneurship and S&T commercialization training. Forms of collaboration will be developed through specific programs that involve faculty, graduate students, and industry as well as finance experts with deep experience and technological specialization in the fields concerned.

A main function of UTEN will be to catalyze and facilitate the coordination and leveraging of resources and assets across Portugal’s regional and national academic, business, and government sectors in the pursuit of accelerated technology/knowledge-based growth. UTEN will work to attract and network the best Portuguese science, engineering, and management talent in collaborative initiatives with the partner Portuguese institutions and the IC² Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. In short, UTEN will focus on S&T commercialization to highlight the competitive space that UTEN intends to dominate by being:

• An important catalyst bridging Portuguese university S&T research and commercial activities
• A means to accelerate US and international market access for Portuguese S&T for business development and the creation of wealth and jobs in Portugal
• A major catalyst in Portugal’s transformation to an innovation-based economy
• A recognized world leader in S&T commercialization success as well as leading-edge education and research on global enterprise innovation and commercialization

A key objective will be to train Portuguese educators and managers so that lessons learned will be ultimately “owned” by the Portuguese entities and so that their operation will be sustainable. UTEN financial sustainability will also be strengthened by developing for-profit activities that will focus on venture development, technology licensing, alliance building, and related business development activities. Operational guidelines will be developed that will specify how such for-profit entities will help financially support and otherwise contribute to UTEN non-profit activities such as education and research as well as benefit participating universities and sustaining and growing the UTEN program. The overall objectives for the 5-year UTEN Program are to enhance and accelerate:

• Portuguese university-industry knowledge/technology transfer and application through on-job training of professionals and entrepreneurs in Austin and through the development of entrepreneurial projects by students and researchers (incubation and international team building)
• Access to US and international markets for Portuguese knowledge/technology
• The education, attraction, and retention of entrepreneurial Portuguese talent
• Research and education excellence on challenges and facilitators for S&T commercialization in global markets
• The creation of wealth and jobs in Portugal

Science and technology sectors to be added during this 5-year program will focus on sectors where there is a good fit between Portuguese research institutions, The University of Texas at Austin, and US market access, such as:

• Information and computer technologies (ICT) where there is considerable educational, research, and business development in both Portugal and Austin
• Biotech and bio-engineering – The UT System ranks Number 1 for biotechnology patents among 424 international universities (Mind to Market: A Global Analysis of University Biotechnology Transfer and Commercializa-tion, Milken Institute, 2006).
• Fabless semiconductor business development – Austin and UT-Austin are global players in semiconductor research and production
• Clean Energy – IC² Institute’s Clean Energy Incubator (CEI) is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the field.
• Health Systems – The University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston is globally recognized and is expanding its regional office in Austin to a full degree-granting institution.