The door and the window

Nowadays, the industry and the engineering schools agree on many points, and the cooperation that currently exists is welcomed. In just two decades, we disassociate ourselves from that time when this important dialogue would almost not survive.

One of the convergent points is the need for skilled workforce and there is also an agreement in the diagnosis – training more and better Portuguese workers is simply not enough, we also have to attract talents. Otherwise, all the growing plans would be stunted when passing through the neck of the qualified human resources.

Other countries adopted and still continue to adopt smart policies to attract talents. However, Portugal hesitates and doesn’t make up its mind.

Not even for the stimulation of more energy or even for the survival of the scientific activity.

In recent times, two outline measures have emerged, causing unnecessary difficulties to the attraction of talents that the universities and research centres or institutes try to promote. One of the measures is related to the bureaucratisation, which is disguised with the flavours of the “legally required” and the recognition of qualifications. The other one concerns the unintelligible obstruction on the issue of visas.

In one case, the Research Groups (Centres, Institutes ...) were deprived of the practical power to decide whether the academic qualifications presented by a candidate for a grant were acceptable - and it’s replaced by an administrative procedure in which its practical effect is to delay decisions, to introduce uncertainty and to preclude the admission or the withdrawal of candidates.

In the other case, besides the more prominent difficulty of the services in processing visa applications, there is now the elimination of the advantages of speeding up decisions in terms of the visas for researchers. In practice, that same visa becomes a statistical reality and not a free pass to attract talents.

We know that story very well. A simple factor can enter through a door, but it doesn't take long before the tricky one comes bursting through the window.