Cerdanyola del Vallès, 11th February 2019. On 11th February 2019, at the ALBA Synchrotron facility, an agreement has been signed to promote scientific collaboration between Spain and Portugal. The agreement has been signed by Caterina Biscari, director of ALBA, and Paulo Ferrão, president of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), under the auspices of Pedro Duque, minister of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government, Manuel Heitor, minister of Science Technology and Higher Education of Portugal, and Àngels Chacón, regional minister of Business and Knowledge of the Catalan Government and current chair of the ALBA Rector Council.
The Portuguese scientific community has been using the ALBA Synchrotron since the beginning of its operation in 2012. Nowadays, Portugal is the 5th country that performs more experiments at ALBA, after Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. They have obtained 60% of requested beamtime and have carried out experiments mainly in biology, protein crystallography and materials science.
With this agreement, the involvement of the Portuguese scientific community in the ALBA Synchrotron activities will find new collaboration pathways, having a direct impact in both the Portuguese scientists and the ALBA Synchrotron evolution.
The initial agreement treats Portuguese users with the same conditions of Spanish users. Researchers granted with beamtime in any of the calls for proposals will be funded with the cost of the experiment, travel and accommodation expenses for a maximum of three members per proposal. Besides, the ALBA Scientific Advisory Board will include one member from Portugal as observer in order to debate and take into account the scientific needs of the Portuguese community. It is also part of this agreement to start a training programme for Portuguese post-doctoral scientists, who will be able to expand their knowledge and specialise in using synchrotron light or developing accelerators. Further collaboration opportunities will also be explored in the future to intensify this collaboration.
During the signature of the agreement, minister Pedro Duque has highlighted that this collaboration "is within the frame of the good relationship between Spain and Portugal in science, innovation and higher education, which is without any doubt very positive for the R&D&I systems of both countries". Portuguese minister Manuel Heitor has said that "this collaboration is aimed at strengthening Europe and a first step of a deeper collaboration in other research areas". Àngels Chacón, regional minister of the Catalan Government has recognised "the great value of ALBA as a cutting-edge research infrastructure for attracting and retaining talent". Paulo Ferrão, president of FCT, has expressed his satisfaction with regards of this agreement to"join forces of Iberian scientists to work for a better science". With this agreement, "we would like to intensify our collaboration with the Portuguese scientific community with the aim of promoting excellent scientific projects", said Caterina Biscari, director of the ALBA Synchrotron.
Before the signature, a tour has been organized to visit the ALBA facility, including the tunnel of accelerators and beamlines.
Images of the signing agreement ceremony, held at the ALBA Synchrotron. From left to right, Caterina Biscari, director of the ALBA Synchrotron, Àngels Chacón, regional minister of Business and Knowledge of the Catalan government, Pedro Duque, minister of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government, Manuel Heitor, minister of Science Technology and Higher Education of Portugal, and Paulo Ferrão, president of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT). In the last picture, members of the ALBA Synchrotron management, Joan Gómez Pallarés, General director of Research from the Catalan government, and Ramon Pascual, honorary president of ALBA.
The ALBA Synchrotron
ALBA is the synchrotron light source located in Barcelona, funded in equal parts by the Spanish and Catalan governments. It is based on a complex of electron accelerators to produce synchrotron light for analyzing matter at atomic and molecular level. ALBA hosts every year more than 2,000 researchers, from academia and industry, in its eight operational beamlines, where experiments are performed simultaneously in biomedicine, chemistry, nanotechnology, materials science, cultural heritage, etc. Besides, four beamlines are under construction that will increase the instrumental capabilities and will give service to a larger number of users. In all the calls for proposals, ALBA has always received twice as many proposals as experiments can be hosted.
The Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
The Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) is the public agency that supports science, technology and innovation in Portugal, under responsibility of the Ministry for Science, Technology and Higher Education. It funds research projects, advanced training, scientific employment, research institutions as well as international cooperation projects.
