Portugal technology: A few bright spots in a bleak landscape

FROM FINANCIAL TIMES

In the Netherlands, the state railway company uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine the best use of its employees and trains according to the complex variants of train timetables, driver availability, labour regulations and network conditions.

The software is supplied by Siscog, a Portuguese company that uses AI to provide interactive scheduling systems for companies managing intricate and constantly evolving resources.

The American Association for Artificial Intelligence has twice presented Siscog with its Innovative Application Award, most recently for a crew planning and management system it developed for Norway’s state railway.

In Portugal, a country ravaged by forest fires in 2003 and 2005, the European Space Agency is working on a project to send fire fighters information from Earth observation satellites via hand-held terminals.

Portugal’s Critical Software, a systems provider for the space, aeronautical and defence industries, is one of the companies working on the development. Skysoft and Edisoft, Portuguese companies in the same field, also work regularly with ESA and NASA, the US space administration.

These companies are part of what the European Commission described in January, in its annual report on innovation, as an elite of innovative Portuguese companies that compete internationally in the field of advanced technology.

But the report drew a much bleaker picture of Portugal as a whole, saying it would take 20 years to catch up to the average European Union level of technological innovation at the current rate of progress.

Portugal scored well on the amount of research carried out by small and medium-sized companies and the adoption of new technologies by the public administration. But overall performance was considered poor.

Weaknesses highlighted by the report include an “individualistic attitude” and aversion to risk among a majority of businesses, difficulties in obtaining bank finance for innovative projects and the lack of a global innovation policy.

The Socialist government’s response to what José Sócrates, the prime minister, describes as a “science emergency”, has been to make an ambitious technology plan, designed to “modernise Portugal through knowledge, innovation and skills”, a central part of its legislative programme.

“The technology plan is not a list of vague intentions or another diagnosis of the country’s problems,” says Manuel Pinho, the economy minister. “It’s an action plan to achieve a sustained increase in productivity over the medium to long term.”

Under the plan, the government aims to triple private-sector investment in R&D, currently 0.26 per cent of GDP, by 2009 and double public R&D spending to 1 per cent. It also wants to triple the number of patents registered each year, increase the number of scientists working in R&D by 50 per cent and provide funds for 1,500 science doctorates a year. Other measures include allocating €30m to help finance the creation of 200 new high-tech companies; doubling the amount of risk capital funds available for investment in innovation; a programme to place 1,500 young science and management graduates in SMEs; new tax incentives to invest in R&D; and hiring a 1,000 more researchers in the public sector.

Mr Pinho stresses, however, that the plan deliberately sets out “not to create the illusion the state can lead the way in creating a national capacity to innovate”. He says “companies have to be the main focus of innovation”. The government plan has been given a seal of approval by some famous names in technology. In February, Bill Gates, chairman of the software company Microsoft, visited Lisbon to sign 19 co-operation accords with Portugal. Microsoft will help provide computer training for more than a million students, teachers, unemployed workers, police officers and others.

It will also create a network of innovation centres to help Portuguese engineers develop new software applications and provide paid work-experience opportunities for unemployed university graduates in partner companies. The agreement does not require the exclusive use of Microsoft software in the projects involved.

Three weeks later, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also signed an agreement with the government to evaluate Portugal’s scientific and technology system over a period of five months with a view to future partnerships.

Efforts to improve Portugal’s technological potential will depend on raising the overall level of education in a country where two out of every five youngsters drop out of school before receiving four years of secondary education.

In relative terms, Portugal invests more than the EU average in education and the average ratio of one teacher to every nine students is one of the highest in the world. But outcomes are among the worst in Europe.

The technology plan sets out to repair weaknesses, ensuring that 65 per cent of the population between the ages of 20 and 24 complete secondary education. Its aim is a skilled labour force where 15 per cent of the active population have a degree.

SOURCE: FINANCIAL TIMES.