The vision guiding the work of the Regional Directorate for Science and Technology is that of a robust regional research and innovation system able to provide everyone involved with the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from the socio-economic impacts of leveraging science, technology and the digital transition.
Regions which are distinguished by investing in a system of science and innovation based on merit and demand, supported by competitive and transparent processes, are those with greater resilience and competitiveness in the future in the various economic sectors. The strength of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in CI & I (Science, Research and Innovation) is essentially the calculated commitment to the capacity of the region as a whole.
They constitute strategic guidelines for the Regional Directorate for Science and Technology, those set out in the Programme of the XIII Regional Government of the Azores, which are based on the central idea of supporting, defining and implementing policies to place the Azores in a prominent position within the national and European framework.
The DRCT also incorporates the strategic guidelines resulting from regional, national and European legal and financial instruments linked to the areas of science, technology and innovation.
We work with regional, national and international partners to shape a dynamic, diverse and inclusive research and innovation system, committed and involved with Azorean society.
Our mission is to ensure the political, legal and technical conditions to promote a knowledge-based society in the Azores, leveraged on the foundations of basic and applied scientific research, innovation and the digital transition.
To this end, we work together, catalyse and invest in close collaboration with the entities of the scientific research and innovation system, always seeking the link between advances in research and innovation and prosperity and public good.
Our networking allows us to act as a bridge between research and innovation communities, institutions, businesses and society. This combination of efforts enables our action, which cuts across the various economic and social sectors in the region, in the understanding that everyone can and should benefit from a knowledge-based society.
As the main regional public funder for research and innovation, it is our responsibility to ensure the health and resilience of the system as a whole, now and in the future.
We fulfil our mission through the ways in which we catalyse, bring together, encourage, finance and co-finance research, innovation and digital transformation projects.
In developing our skills, we use, inter alia, mechanisms such as the allocation of advanced training fellowships, the promotion of the stability of research teams through the recruitment of researchers and the integration of research centres and researchers in the scientific and technological system of the Azores into international research and innovation networks. With a clear commitment to the Digital Transition, DRCTD designs and manages the key projects that will enable the construction, on an advanced digital basis, of accessible and efficient services for citizens, businesses and public administration.
The objectives set will be pursued with the human, material and financial resources allocated to the Regional Directorate for Science and Digital Transition, promoting the adjustments needed to achieve the objectives to be achieved.
1. Strengthen the scientific and technological system of the Azores as a central pillar of growth and development in the Autonomous Region of the Azores.
2. Boosting academic research and innovation by leveraging the transfer of knowledge in the business environment in the area of new and emerging technologies and creating regional, national and international value.
3. Design and start the implementation of the Strategy for the Digital Transition and Transformation of the Sugar Society 2021-2030, in line with national and European strategies, focusing on the key pillars: Citizens, businesses, regional public administration with synergies between them, based on knowledge generation and transfer;
4. Enhance the position of the Autonomous Region of the Azores as an internationally recognised region, attractive for national and foreign investment, and for the acquisition of knowledge in the area of new and emerging technologies.