Manuel Heitor

Manuel Heitor (2017)

Manuel Frederico Tojal de Valsassina Heitor (born September 21, 1958 in Lisbon ) is a Portuguese university professor and politician ( PS ). Manuel Heitor has been the Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education since 2015.

Life

Manuel Heitor was born in Lisbon in 1958 and grew up there. In 1981 Heitor graduated from the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon as a mechanical engineer. This was followed by a doctorate at Imperial College London in 1985 and a postdoc position at the University of California in San Diego in 1986 . After his stays abroad, he initially devoted himself to academic research at the IST in Lisbon in the field of Mecânica de Fluidos e Combustão Experimental (German: " Fluid Mechanics and Experimental Combustion Processes ").

He has been involved in higher education policy since the 1990s. From 1993 to 1998 he was Vice President of the Lisbon IST, in 1998 he founded his Centro de Estudos em Inovação, Tecnologia e Politicas de Desenvolvimento, IN + (German: Study Center for Innovation, Technology and Development Policy) also at the IST. According to the International Association for the Management of Technology (IAMOT) , IN + 2005 was among the top 50 global science centers in the field of technology management. In the 2011/2012 teaching year, he is a visiting professor at the renowned Harvard University .

Manuel Heitor's other activities were research officers at the University of Texas in Austin, at the IC2 Institute, Innovation, Creativity and Capital and participations in various scientific networks , such as in 2002 as a co-founder of Globelics - the global network for the economics of learning, innovation, and competence building systems (German: global network for the education industry, innovation and competence building systems ); Science, Technology, Education and Policy for Europe (step4EU), or the Portuguese Observatório Internacional de Políticas Globais (OIPG) for exploring the Atlantic.

Under Mariano Gago as Minister, he began his political career in the Portuguese State Secretariat for Science, Technology and Higher Education between 2005 and 2011. He already worked in both of the Sócrates I and Sócrates II cabinets, which were previously led by the Socialist Party (PS) . After the death of Mariano Gago in 2015 and again under the socialist leadership of Prime Minister António Costa , Heitor himself came to the office of Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education in the XXI Governo Constitucional .

Manuel Heitor is actively involved in increasing public and private funding of Portuguese research, technology and in the reform and modernization of the Portuguese higher education system. He was significantly involved in the design and implementation of international exchange programs in research and higher education between North American and Portuguese universities, as well as the development of corresponding science and technology platforms.

Manuel Heitor's efforts to improve academic employment conditions for the benefit of young scientists in Portugal attracted criticism. The science system that was previously based exclusively on grants and grants should be changed to a system with more contractually regulated employment contracts. The previously valid scholarship system undermined fundamental labor rights and regulations, such as maternity leave and the right to unemployment benefits . Manuel Heitor's proposal was aimed at bringing about 3000 scholarship-funded academics into contractually secured employment conditions by 2020. From the speech Contra a Precariedade Científica (German: Network against academic poverty ) it was criticized that after the implementation of the first reforms only postdoc positions were affected which were supported by the Fundação para a Ciência ea Tecnologia (German: Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT) were subsidized. That is only 14% of all subsidized academic positions.

Other topics were the "praxes", which were repeatedly hotly debated in Portugal in the 2010s. Practices are the name given to the first semester baptisms common at many Portuguese universities, which sometimes escalated and the extent of which is controversial in Portugal.

Manuel Heitor stands in the shadow of his predecessor Mariano Gago, who for many years held the office of Minister for University Policy. In the Portuguese media, Heitor was therefore occasionally referred to as Mariano Gago's apprentice.

Private

Manuel Heitor's father, Frederico Lúcio de Valsassina Heitor was the director of the Lisbon private school Colégio Valsassina , which Heitor also attended himself, and was also active as the spokesman for the Portuguese teachers' association until his death in 2010. His grandfather Raul Francisco Tojal was a well-known Portuguese architect (Hotel Estoril Sol at the Casino Estoril there ), as was his brother Frederico Lúcio de Valsassina Heitor. The wealthy Valsassina family comes from a branch of the Italian noble family Valsassina , who settled in Portugal since the 19th century.

Books

• P. Conceição, MV Heitor, (2005), Innovation for All? Learning from the Portuguese path to technical change and the dynamics of innovation , Westport and London, Praeger Verlag.
• Science and Technology Policy , series, Praeger Verlag, and since 2003 Purdue University Press
• M. Heitor and J. Duarte (2001). GLASS CHAIR: Competence Building for Innovation , Lisbon, IST Press.
• Conceição, P., Heitor, MV and Santos, F. (1998), New Ideas for the University (Portuguese), Lisbon: IST Press.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Apresentação do Orçamento de Estado para 2017 , PS page references Manuel Heitor as a member, from October 18, 2016 (Portuguese) http://www.psviseu.com/noticia.php?n=322 ( Memento from January 25, 2017 on WebCite ) , alternatively also collected articles by Manuel Heitor on the PS website, accessed January 25, 2017, (Portuguese) http://www.ps.pt/tag/manuel-heitor/ ( Memento from January 25, 2017 on WebCite )
2. ↑ Official statement of Minister Decree do Presidente da República n.º 129-C / 2015 de 26 de novembro , November 26, 2015 (Portuguese) https://dre.pt/application/file/71124703 ( Memento from January 20, 2017 on WebCite )
3. ↑ Official website of the Costa government, Manuel Heitor, (Portuguese) http://www.portugal.gov.pt/pt/ministerios/mctes/equipa/ministro/manuel-heitor.aspx ( Memento from January 25, 2017 on WebCite )
4. ↑ Manuel Heitor, o ministro que quer continuar o legado de Mariano Gago , presentation in the Público, November 24, 2015 (Portuguese) https://www.publico.pt/2015/11/24/ciencia/noticia/manuel-heitor- o-ministro-que-quer-continuar-o-legado-de-mariano-gago-1715485 ( Memento from January 25, 2017 on WebCite )
5. ↑ Biography at IST (Portuguese) http://in3.dem.ist.utl.pt/docs/research_team/MVH_Bio_e_CV_PT_Jan_2014.pdf ( Memento from January 25, 2017 on WebCite )
6. ↑ New Portuguese post-doc contracts disappoint , from September 14, 2016 (English) https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/new-portuguese-post-doc-contracts-disappoint-/1017414.article ( Memento from 25. January 2017 on WebCite )
7. ↑ Ministro publica carta aberta sobre praxes académicas - Opinion in an open letter on the so-called "Praxes" by Manuel Heitor, from September 5, 2016 (Portuguese) https://jpn.up.pt/2016/09/05/ministro- publica-carta-aberta-sobre-praxes-academicas / ( Memento from January 26, 2017 on WebCite )
8. ↑ Article in the Expresso magazine in which Manuel Heitor is referred to as Mariano Gago's apprentice, from November 24, 2011 (Portuguese) http://expresso.sapo.pt/politica/2015-11-24-Ministro-do-Ensino-Superior e-da-Ciencia-o-regresso-do-discipulo-de-Gago ( Memento from January 26, 2017 on WebCite )
9. ^ History of the private school Colégio Valsassina (Portuguese) http://www.cvalsassina.pt/historia ( Memento from January 25, 2017 on WebCite )
10. ↑ Antes da sida, pensava-se que a medicina controlava todos os problemas , Portuguese interview in which the relationship of the Manuel Heitors to the Colégio Valsassina is mentioned http://www.dn.pt/sociedade/interior/antes-da-sida- pensava-se-que-a-medicina-controlava-todos-os-problemas-5109006.html ( Memento from January 25, 2017 on WebCite )
11. ↑ Interview with Manuel Heitor's brother, the architect Frederico Lúcio de Valsassina Heitor (Portuguese) http://expresso.sapo.pt/life_style/gente/arq-frederico-valsassina-gosto-de-fazer-coisas-boas-nao- de-luxo = f545640 ( Memento from January 25, 2017 on WebCite )