Técnico’s HOPTEC project was one of the five winners of the 2nd edition of the UP – Higher Education Program, created by the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) to promote and encourage the internationalisation of Portuguese Higher Education Institutions. FLAD will finance in 105 thousand euros five projects of Portuguese Higher Education Institutions. The Award ceremony took place on 14th November at FLAD.

HOPTEC is a collaboration with Johns Hopkins University that aims to advance joint scientific research in priority areas, as well as to increase opportunities for master’s and PhD students from both institutions. The consortium team is based in Técnico’s International Affairs Division (AAI) and comprises the Técnico alumni Inês Godet (Biological Engineering) and André Forjaz (Electrical and Computer Engineering).

According to the FLAD website, “the sharing will be achieved by giving stage to students, through joint seminars, the holding of an annual symposium to take place on a rotating basis, and a competition that should result in financial support for more students to benefit from a period of study and research at the partner institution”.

This project aims to consolidate existing dynamics and share them with the Hopkins and Técnico communities, which is reflected in the name “HOPTEC”, a concatenation of the names of the two institutions.