MIT Portugal Program

𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐦𝐚𝐧 🚀

Last week was marked by the visit of Dava Newman - Apollo Program Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and former NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Deputy Administrator.

On May 26, Pavilhão do Conhecimento - Centro Ciência Viva hosted the first “Mostra de Carreiras Espaciais – Geração Espaço”, where Dava shared her career journey during the talk “From Aerospace to Major Space Missions: The Career of Dava Newman”.

On the same day, the event “Space Tech Entrepreneurship in the Artemis Generation 2026–2040” also took place at Instituto Superior Técnico - Campus Oeiras (TAGUSPARK). The event encouraged reflection on the role of Europe and Portugal in the new space economy, bringing together academia, industry, students, and entrepreneurs to discuss emerging trends and challenges in the sector.

From Lisbon directly to Universidade do Minho, Dava also had the opportunity to take part in the “Engineering Talks”, where she addressed the challenges facing the sector in her lecture “Exploring Optimistic Space Futures”.

It was an incredibly enriching week, creating space for many conversations about the past, present, and future of space exploration.

We would also like to extend our thanks to all the institutions and organizations that made this exchange possible - Instituto Superior Técnico, MBE in Space Systems, Pavilhão do Conhecimento - Centro Ciência Viva, ESA bic Oeiras, Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho and Universidade do Minho.

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩 (𝐈𝐖𝐒) 🌊

Gaël Forget, an MIT researcher, was one of the invited speakers at the Workshop on Internal Waves.

The Internal Waves Service (IWS) is an international scientific initiative dedicated to the global detection, monitoring, and analysis of oceanic internal waves. The service is currently based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Wave Mode (WV) observations, enabling systematic, global-scale monitoring of internal wave signatures from satellite data.

This workshop is organized by the AIR Centre and aims to bring together experts from the field to better understand internal waves and how to study them.

Gaël is also involved in other projects in collaboration with several Portuguese institutions — we’ll share more about this soon, stay tuned! ☺️

🚀 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐬!

The MIT Portugal Program (MPP) is pleased to announce its 2026 call to support innovative, collaborative research projects between MIT and Portuguese institutions.

This call targets strategic areas such as:

🔹 Chips/Nanotechnology and AI
🔹 Energy and Sustainable Cities
🔹 Climate Science and Oceans
🔹 Space and Digital Transformation in Manufacturing

Two proposal types are accepted:

1️⃣ Joint Integrated Proposals: Team-submitted proposals jointly led by P*s from both an MIT entity and Portugal.
2️⃣ Seed Proposals: MIT PI-submitted proposals developed in collaboration with Portuguese researchers.

⏳ Application Deadline: 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔

Turn your research into global impact. Find full details and how to apply here: https://mitportugal.org/competitive-calls/2026-call-for-seed-grant-proposals