DIRECTOR OF EEUM’S
RESEARCH CENTRE JOINS INESC TEC GOVERNING BOARD
Rui Oliveira, director of the HASLab – High Assurance Software Laboratory, is one of the new members of the Administration Board of INESC TEC. Last month, following INESC Porto’s name change to INESC TEC, new management bodies were elected. INESC TEC increased the number of members of the previous management team in order to cope with the institution’s fast pace development. Consequently, the governing body is now called Administration Board and is constituted by the president, José Manuel Mendonça, administrators Mário Jorge Leitão, João Peças Lopes and Vladimiro Miranda, and five new administrators, Luís Carneiro, Gabriel David, João Claro, Bernardo Almada Lobo and Rui Oliveira. ENGINews talked to the director of HASLab, who is very enthusiastic about this new challenge.
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How did you join INESC TEC’s governing board? Since the cooperation agreement between the University of Minho and INESC TEC (INESC Porto, at that time) was signed, in 2012, the HASLab – High Assurance Software Laboratory has been actively taking part in the activities of the Associate Laboratory, ensuring high quality and relevant participation. The HASLab has constantly participated in national and European projects in collaboration with other research centres. The integration of the HASLab in the INESC TEC structure is presently fully completed; not only regarding the institution’s structure and activity, but also as far as its competence network and scientific strategy are concerned. As HASLab coordinator, I was closely involved in this process, during which I have acquired a great amount of knowledge on the institutional dynamics of INESC TEC and also on its challenges and adversities. The invitation to be a member of the board is fundamentally a result of this process. It is also nonetheless closely related to the joint value and commitment of HASLab’s researchers in the association of UMinho to the Associate Laboratory. It also reveals that the University of Minho is undoubtedly a fully respected partner and that there is no discrimination based on origin by INESC TEC. How important is it that HASLab is part of an Associate Laboratory? The status of Associate Laboratory has allowed these institutions to access extraordinary conditions for their development, organisation and focus on research and development. This has consequently allowed INESC TEC to acquire an uncommon critical mass and multidisciplinarity, to have a science management team and methodology of proven efficiency, and scientific productivity of international reference throughout the whole chain value. The relevance of being part of such a community is obvious for the University of Minho and the HASLab has contributed to and taken advantage of all these aspects. It is of the utmost importance to be part of a win-win project. After this change in INESC TEC’s governance, what will your contribution be? My role and goals at the Governing Board of INESC TEC are clearly defined. One of the areas I would like to highlight, and one I am particularly interested in, is the inter-unit and inter-institutional intertwinement. INESC TEC plays a fundamental role in engineering R&D in our country. However, it does not hold, and will probably never hold, skills in all the domains required to respond to the major challenges we all face – therefore, I will contribute to a policy of reinforcing successful alliances, providing national dimension (and international strength) to the institutional convergence INESC TEC already represents. The recipe for success will be to gather and articulate these institutions according to the excellence pattern of the Associate Laboratory while keeping them at their best performance. |