LUSO 2016 in Manchester is the conference of the community of Portuguese researchers and students in the United kingdom, and will take place on 18 June 2016 at teh Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.
More information about the call and the conference can be found at https://luso2016mcr.wordpress.com/.
Portugal has just emerged from a tough process of economic and financial readjustment, with a tremendous impact on society in general, and in sensitive areas dependent on public investment and the economy’s performance in particular, namely in higher education (HE) and the national scientific research system (RDI). In addition to the fact that structural problems were not really tackled, the country now embraces a path with possible political instability as well as uncertain medium-term public policies, framed in anaemic growth and exposed to exogenous factors that illustrate the socio-economic weaknesses that Portugal is facing.
Structural issues such as demographics, the social value of education and training, economic mentality, competitiveness and innovativeness are some of the central themes of a debate that has to be made in the country.
The present moment is critical and deserves to be the centre of an in-depth debate within the PARSUK community. The critical mass of this community consists of people who are professionally and personally dedicated to scientific research in the United Kingdom (UK) through a combination of backgrounds developed in the UK, Portugal, as well as other geographies. The immersion of the members of the PARSUK community in the British HE and RDI systems, globally acknowledged as excellent, is a key (individual and collective) asset that should be explored as a possible catalyst for change in Portugal.
This community has therefore a key role as a stakeholder in the HE and RDI sectors in Portugal, both for what it can bring to the debate of their policies, using the British experience, but also because it is composed by a number of people that interested in returning to Portugal.