Science ministers from Portugal and Spain have visited ALBA, motivated by a collaboration agreement that promotes the Portuguese scientific community using the ALBA Synchrotron and also includes a training program for Portuguese postdoctoral researchers at ALBA.
On 11th February 2019, at the ALBA Synchrotron facility, an agreement has been signed to promote scientific collaboration between Spain and Portugal. The agreement has been signed by Caterina Biscari, director of ALBA, and Paulo Ferrão, president of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), under the auspices of Pedro Duque, minister of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government, Manuel Heitor, minister of Science Technology and Higher Education of Portugal, and Àngels Chacón, regional minister of Business and Knowledge of the Catalan Government and current chair of the ALBA Rector Council.
The Portuguese scientific community has been using the ALBA Synchrotron since the beginning of its operation in 2012. Nowadays, Portugal is the 5th country that performs more experiments at ALBA, after Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. They have obtained 60% of requested beamtime and have carried out experiments mainly in biology, protein crystallography and materials science.
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Image: Images of the signing agreement ceremony, held at the ALBA Synchrotron. From left to right, Caterina Biscari, director of the ALBA Synchrotron, Àngels Chacón, regional minister of Business and Knowledge of the Catalan government, Pedro Duque, minister of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish Government, Manuel Heitor, minister of Science Technology and Higher Education of Portugal, and Paulo Ferrão, president of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT). In the last picture, members of the ALBA Synchrotron management, Joan Gómez Pallarés, General director of Research from the Catalan government, and Ramon Pascual, honorary president of ALBA.