Developing human capital and research capacity: Science policies promoting brain gain

"Brain drain, brain gain... brain sustain?" Challenges in building portuguese human research capacity

“…This would reverse the trend of the last decade, which was one of "brain gain" (Heitor, Horta and Mendonça, 2014).…”

“…The majority of foreign researchers came from EU countries, which showed that Portugal had the potential to attract top researchers to its R&D units and foster their further specialisation, development and improvement (Horta and Hasanefendic, 2015). According to Heitor, Horta and Mendonça (2014) (FCT, 2014). Such a diverse and heterogeneous S&T base in terms of nationalities contributed to the process of internationalisation of the Portuguese R&D institutions as well as accelerated levels of mobility among the Portuguese faculty (Fontes, 2007;FCT, 2009;Araújo, 2009).…”

“…Over the past three decades, the Portuguese science and technology (S&T) system has been growing with intense and large-scale changes in science and technology policies targeting the improvement of scientific infrastructure: assessment, evaluation and investments in R&D, and training of human resources in S&T. The underdeveloped tertiary education system, with its limited knowledge base, research capacity and access was recognized as a problem impeding economic and social growth of Portugal in the late 1960s (Gonçalves and Caraça, 1987;Heitor and Horta, 2012;Heitor, Horta and Mendonça, 2014). Government at the time kept itself at a distance from science and scientific culture (Gago, 1990), creating short-term polices and investing in science and technology at negligible rates.…”

“…Government at the time kept itself at a distance from science and scientific culture (Gago, 1990), creating short-term polices and investing in science and technology at negligible rates. Research was underdeveloped and undertaken in isolation by selected state laboratories (see Heitor, Horta and Mendonça, 2014). There were no incentives to higher education qualification and during this period many Portuguese scientists and scholars left the country in pursuit of education and specialization (Heitor and Horta, 2012), which left higher education institutions without adequately qualified teaching and research staff.…”

“…For example, the establishment of the National Committee of Scientific and Technological Research (Junta Nacional de Investigação Científica e Tecnológica, JNICT) in 1967 "marked the beginning of science planning" (Heitor, Horta and Mendonça, 2014: 12;Rollo, Ribeiro and Meireles, 2013). The consolidation of the program "Ciência -Criação de Infraestruturas Nacionais de Ciência, Investigação e Desenvolvimento" in 1993 stimulated the growth in doctoral qualifications in the country with more than 3000 fellowships granted (Heitor, Horta and Mendonça, 2014), and the creation of the Ministry for Science and Technology in 1995 introduced many changes in the S&T infrastructure. The Ministry undertook the reform of assessment and evaluation of research and restructured JNICT into three different institutions in 1997: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT), which is responsible for the evaluation and financing of research in Portugal, Institute for International Science and Technology Cooperation (Instituto para a Cooperação Científica e Tecnológica Internacional, ICCTI), which is responsible for international cooperation in science and technology, and Observatory of Science and Technology (Observatório da Ciência e Tecnologia, OCT), 1 which studies the national scientific and technological capacity.…”