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 collaborate, catalyse and invest in close collaboration with the entities of the scientific research and innovation system, always seeking the link between advances in these areas and prosperity and the public good.
Our networking allows us to act as a bridge between research and innovation communities, institutions, businesses and society. This combination of efforts empowers our action, which cuts across the region’s various economic and social sectors, 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 deliver on our mission through the ways in which we catalyse, pool, encourage, finance and co-finance research and technological innovation projects.
In developing our skills, we use, inter alia, mechanisms such as the award of advanced training fellowships, the promotion of stability of research teams through the hiring of researchers and the integration of Research Centres and researchers from the Azores Scientific and Technological System into international research and innovation networks.
The objectives set will be pursued with the human, material and financial resources allocated to the Regional Directorate for Science and Technology, promoting the necessary adjustments to achieve the objectives to be achieved.
1. Strengthen the Azores Scientific and Technological System as a central pillar of the growth and development of the Autonomous Region of the Azores.
2. Leveraging academic research and innovation by leveraging knowledge transfer in the business environment in the area of new and emerging technologies and creating value on a regional, national and international scale.
3. Enhance the position of the Autonomous Region of the Azores as an internationally recognised region, attractive for national and foreign investment, and for attracting knowledge in the area of new and emerging technologies.