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All schools connected to the Internet since 2001 and in broadband since January 2006
In 1997, all the 5th to 12th grade schools in Portugal were connected through ISDN to the Science Technology and Society Network which was enlarged from the previously existing university network to include all the education system, the private and public research institutions, all the public libraries in the country and solidarity institutions. By the end of 2001 the process of connecting all the public schools to this network through ISDN was concluded. Since the end of January 2006, all public schools have access to broadband DSL connection to the Internet through the Science Technology and Society Network. |
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Public Internet Spaces
More than 1,080 Internet Spaces provide free access to multimedia computers and the Internet to citizens all over the country. In all the Internet Spaces, trained personnel assure permanent support to users, and assume a very important role of social mediators to computer and Internet technology in local, and frequently remote, communities. Most of them have at least one working station specially equipped for accessibility to the handicapped. These spaces, some tailored to specific target groups of citizens, are being made available through different public funding lines, such as Public Internet Spaces in Municipalities, Digital Cities and Digital Regions projects, Ciência Viva Centers, Choices Programme (ACIME) and Solidarity Network. The creation of Internet Spaces started with 260 Public Internet Spaces in Municipalities opened in the period 1999-2001 and their number was steadily increased since then. |
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Basic ICT Skills Diploma
The process of recognition of basic competencies in ICT and the associated awarding is assured since 2001, based on a network of accredited entities of varied nature, most of which can also provide training in ICT, namely higher education institutions, schools, Science Alive (“Ciência Viva”) Centers, centers for promoting the diffusion of ICT, professional training centers, Internet Spaces and others. So far more than 357.000 people obtained the diploma in more than 800 registered centers.
The ICT competencies recognition system is being expanded to include intermediate and higher levels of competencies and e-learning. |
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Digital Cities and Digital Regions
A total of 33 projects for the development of Digital Cities and Digital Regions
are being publicly supported, with a total investment over 200 million euros. The projects involve electronic government solutions for local public administrations, conditions for reinforcing the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises, and a wide variety of citizen centered services (e.g, information, health, education, safety). |
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Science Alive (“Ciencia Viva”): a program for the promotion of science and technology within society
Created in 1997, the Science Alive (“Ciencia Viva”) program (www.cienciaviva.pt) has been a highly successful initiative for promoting science and technology within society through a variety of schemes that involve a wide network of research centers and institutes, special education projects in schools for the experimental teaching of sciences, a network of Ciencia Viva Centers throughout the country which operate as hands on science museums for all ages. Many activities are based upon electronic communications and include educational projects using collaborative computational tools and the Internet, including projects performed in partnership with schools in other countries. |
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b-on: Online Knowledge Library
Through b-on (www.b-on.pt) full texts of the main academic and scientific journals published internationally are accessible online to individuals in all research and higher education institutions in Portugal, through nationwide subscriptions signed with the top international scientific journal publishers.
Conceived in 1999, prepared since then up to 2003 and launched in April 2004 with 3,500 titles from six publishers, b-on now allows online access to more than 16,750 electronic publications from 16 international publishers in all areas of academic and scientific research. It also provides access to the convenient Web of Knowledge bibliographic reference and citation tools, which had been provided as a first step in 2001, with records since 1945. More than 40,000 professors and researchers and 340,000 students from 66 research and higher education institutions currently have unlimited access to the b-on contents and search engine. The Portuguese scientific community started using extensively this service when it was launched. So far, the downloads of full text scientific papers done through b-on account for more than 5.5 million. The contents will be substantially enlarged as the b-on portal will also provide full text search of Master and PhD theses presented in Portuguese institutions as well as other national academic and scientific content. |
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e-U: Electronic University/Virtual Campus
The e-U initiative (www.e-u.pt) is targeted at students and professors of higher education institutions and includes the extensive wireless networking of campuses with more than 5,000 access points, as well as higher education electronic services, contents and applications. It is the world’s largest academic wireless network presently in operation. The e-U access will be available in every higher education institution across the country and will allow complete national mobility (roaming) among institutions. The initiative also accounts for content and service sharing between universities.
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UMIC focused on creating sufficient genuine demand for the virtual campus network to ensure its immediate viability – and to create a broader impact over the long term."
Economist Intelligence Unit: “Accessing EU funds: best practice from around the EU”, Jan. 2005 |
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e-U has been one of the most innovative initiatives, on a worldwide level, that has been driven by a government, to promote the use of technology into academia and is improving the flexibility and quality of learning among Portuguese universities.”
Christian Morales, Vice President Intel |
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National GRID Initiative
Launched in April 2006, the Portuguese National GRID Initiative aims at promoting the development of GRID Computing and the sharing of distributed computing resources for the resolution of complex problems that require intensive data processing. Its main objectives are: to strengthen national competencies and capacities in GRID Computing due to its special strategic importance, to pursue Portugal integration in the GRID Computing international network, to improve the conditions for scientific activities and applications of economic and social interest that involve complex computations or large quantities of data, to strengthen multidisciplinarity and the collaboration between researchers and users of high performance computing, to strengthen the conditions for businesses to find in Portugal human resources with knowledge and experience in GRID Computing. The Initiative of the responsibility of the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) will be overseen by the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and will involve actions for: expanding GRID infrastructure, enlarging connectivity between GRID nodes in Portugal and of them to other international infrastructures, promoting R&D projects in GRID Computing, supporting demonstration and application projects in areas such as meteorology, oceanography, geophysics and seismology, high energy physics, supporting the advanced training of human resources, promoting the international evaluation of actions and projects, assuring the observation and monitoring of the initiative and the dissemination of information and knowledge within the GRID Computing community.
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Neotec: New Technological Enterprises
The Neotec initiative promotes the creation of new technological enterprises based on ICT and with high potential growth by providing financial support different phases of the enterprise creation process, from idea development to business plan and beginning of operations. The initiative is designed for the particular needs of students of higher education institutions and researchers of these or other scientific institutions. Neotec is implemented through the Innovation Agency, a company owned by the Portuguese State through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, IAPMEI – Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises and Investment, and PME Investimentos – Small and Medium Enterprises Investments, both of the Ministry of Economy and Innovation. So far, the initiative supports the creation and initial development of 108 new enterprises.
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OTIC – Technology and Knowledge Transfer Workshops (“Oficinas de Transferência de Tecnologia e Conhecimento”)
The OTIC initiative promotes the creation of knowledge and technology transfer units in the areas of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). They operate within higher education institutions - universities and polythecnics - and mediate between them and enterprises, by detecting opportunities of economic exploitation of the knowledge and technology supplied by universities and polythecnics, and by identifying knowledge and technological demand by enterprises with the potential of leading to innovative technological developments to be pursued in collaboration between higher education institutions and enterprises. The final goal is to enhance knowledge based economic and social development. Similarly to Neotec, OTIC is implemented through the Innovation Agency. So far, the initiative supports the creation and initial development of 22 new knowledge and technology transfer units. |
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Networks of Competence
The Networks of Competence initiative promotes the creation of innovation and knowledge networks of enterprises, research centers, technological centers, universities, polytechnics and other higher education institutions, public bodies and enterprise associations, with a scope strongly involving information and communication technologies. They aim at creating partnerships for innovation and knowledge that can contribute to the social and economic development of a region or economic sector by promoting the development of a more competitive economy based on new or better products and services, enhancing the partnerships for collaborative applied research projects and influencing the training of human resources in areas of regional or sectorial excellence. Similarly to Neotec and OTIC, the Networks of Competence initiative is implemented through the Innovation Agency. So far, the initiative supports the creation and initial development of 9 Networks of Competence. |
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The Enterprise’s Portal
The Enterprise’s Portal (www.portaldaempresa.pt) is an integrated access point to public services provided to enterprises. It was launched at the end of June 2006, facilitating the access to public services provided to enterprises through the Internet and substantially extending the more than 400 services for enterprises that were being provided through the Citizen’s Portal. Among others, the additional services now provided include the complete creation of an enterprise through the Internet, a consultation electronic desk for matters related to enterprise activities assured by the Institute of Support to Small and Medium Enterprises and Investment (IAPMEI), and the Enterprise Electronic Dossier where the different processes of each enterprise with the public administration are assembled and made easily and securely available to the enterprise associates or their representatives through identity authentication by advanced electronic signature certificates, assuring full transparency on the status of the respective processes. The services provided will be progressively extended. The electronic payments platform developed for the Citizen’s Portal allows the full dematerialization of payments to the state, including those necessary for the creation of an enterprise. Now, for the creation of an enterprise the associates do not have to be together and nobody needs to go to a public office, further extending the business facilitation initiated with the ‘On the Spot Firm’ initiative of July 2005 which already allowed for the creation of more than 8,000 enterprises with an average creation time of only 58 minutes. The Enterprise’s Portal also makes available services for the third sector: nonprofit associations, cooperatives and nongovernmental organizations. |
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The Citizen’s Portal
The Citizen's Portal (www.portaldocidadao.pt) is the central digital channel for public services, complementing with total convenience and availability the physical Citizen’s Shops. Launched in the first quarter of 2004, The Citizen's Portal now offers more than 800 citizen-oriented 24/7 services (about 1/2 informational, 1/4 interactive, 1/6 transactional), provided by 125 public administration bodies. It already is a well known brand, recognised by more than 30% of the Portuguese population. More than half a million users access it on a regular basis, with 3 million page views per month originated from more than 33 countries of all world continents, mainly for such services as information on the public administration, income tax declaration, change of address notifications to public services, official certifications requests from public bodies. The Citizen's Portal is regularly classified among the ten best Portuguese sites (KPBI30, Internet performance Portuguese index, January 2005). The development of the Citizen's Portal has been continuous. Besides improvements on the user interface, since February 2005 it offers services supported by sms, and access through wap protocol by mobile phones and PDAs. An electronic payments platform was introduced at the end of 2005 allowing for different forms of payments, including the issuing of payment orders which can be completed through the unified ATM network widely available in Portugal or even without leaving home or office for people who have homebanking, in this case allowing full process dematerialization of requests.
The services provided to citizens will be further enhanced by the use of the electronic Citizen´s Card which was launched in February of 2007 in the Azores Islands.
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The Citizen’s Card
The Citizen’s Card is the Portuguese electronic identity card (eID). It began to be available to citizen’s in the Azores Islands by February 2007 and in the continent by the end of July 2007. It is a smart card that provides visual identity authentication with increased security and electronic identity authentication with biometrics (photo and finger print) and electronic signatures. The development of the Citizen’s Card is part of the Government plan to simplify the administration and to modernize the public services. It will replace five presently existing cards - Identification Document, Tax Payer’s Card, Social Security Card, Voter’s Card, Health System Card - and will allow multichannel identity authentication, namely in presence, through the Internet, or by telephone (with one-time passwords generated with the card) thus allowing the citizen to identify himself electronically and to dispose of a legally valid electronic signature from a distance contributing to the deployment of customer-oriented advanced public services. The Citizen’s Card project is coordinated by the Coordination Unit for the Administration Modernization (UCMA) which works in strong partnership with the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) for operational matters. |
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Public e-Procurement
The main objectives of the National e-Procurement Program (www.compras.gov.pt) are: increase efficiency and transparency, generate savings, and promote the adoption of e-commerce. During the first two years of program (2003-04), the focus was on the characterization of the expense and the reformulation of procedures, whereby new processes were adopted, such as sourcing, aggregation and negotiation. In the pilot phase the project involved eight ministries and a few public bodies and product categories. Presently, the process is at a generalization and enlargement phase to all public bodies/ministries, and other product categories. The program already involved directly all the 16 ministries of the Portuguese Government (including the Presidency of the Ministers Council), 794 public bodies, 1,374 users, 94 aggregation/negotiation processes, with 40 million euros negotiated (26 million euros in the first semester of 2006) and 20% estimated savings. Total savings expected from the ongoing expansion of this initiative amount to 250 million euros/year (source: AT Kearney). |
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Electronic Invoices in the Public Administration
In August 2005, the Government decided that electronic invoices should be fully adopted by the public administration up to the end of 2006, and nominated the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) for monitoring and evaluating its implementation. Following this decision, UMIC put together a stakeholder working group, involving people from several public bodies (especially from fiscal authorities), nongovernmental organizations promoting digital economy and electronic commerce, and professionals, with the aim of analyzing/proposing legislation and preparing an Electronic Invoice Guide. This guide was published in March 2006, opening a period of public consultation for receiving suggestions and contributions of improvements. In the meanwhile, a monitoring process based on electronic enquires was initiated to follow the adoption of electronic invoices by the public bodies. |
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e-Accessibility
A special unit promotes, since 1999, the adoption of good practices for accessibility of the public administration websites to citizens with special needs. This unit also promotes the availability of digital libraries and audiobooks in high schools, the adoption of assistive technologies in hospitals, and the infrastructuring of (re)habilitation centers (53 projects led by consortiums involving NGOs and people with special needs). |
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Solidarity Network
In 2001, a Solidarity Network connected NGOs concerned with people with special needs (elderly and impaired) to the Internet. Presently, this network involves 240 broadband access points, maintains 650 email boxes for use of the target groups, as well as specific contents of interest, and includes 13 videoconference connections between schools and hospitals allowing bed-ridden students remotely attend classes and to keep in touch with family and friends. |
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e-Democracy
The main goal of the Portuguese Electronic Vote Project is to allow, in the future, citizens who are far away from their normal polling stations to be able to vote from wherever they are in the election day. In this context, A first pilot project of Electronic Voting was held in the 2004 European Elections. Three different technologies were tested, with 150 000 voters in 9 municipalities. The second pilot project, in the 2005 Legislative Elections, improved voting platforms with technology for citizens with special needs and paper trail. It was also tested internet vote for Portuguese citizens living abroad ( with 4 500 participants from 38 countries). Both non biding pilot projects were audited and evaluated by a multidisciplinary task force of university specialists, and the results were very positive.
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Information and Knowledge Society Observatory
The Information and Knowledge Society Observatory is the part of UMIC – Knowledge Society Agency in charge statistical indicators and studies on the Information Society and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Portugal. It assures regular surveys and studies on the use of ICT by families, enterprises, hotels, hospitals, schools, public administration, and other sectors, as well as on the employment in the ICT sector, the quality of public administration websites and other matters of interest to monitor the development of the Information Society in Portugal and compare it with the development observed in other countries. This group of UMIC assures the representation of Portugal in international organizations that deal with indicators and statistics of Information Society or TIC, such as EUROSTAT, OECD and the DG Information Society of the European Commission. |
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Forum for the Information Society
The Forum for the Information Society is a consultation
and arbitration body for the development of public
policies regarding the Information Society. It is
put together to involve the relevant social agents,
both public and private, and to be open, interactively,
to the whole society. Its first session was in March
2006, gathering more than 300 people to debate several
topics related to Information Society and Information
and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as public
administration modernization, education and training,
electronic commerce, regional development and employment
creation, information technologies for social inclusion,
new entrepreneurial opportunities. This session also
took stock of recent developments and international
benchmarking, inclusively on telecommunications regulation
and competition. It also involved visionary presentations
on new horizons for ICT, such as pervasive sensor networks,
demographic and technological challenges and opportunities,
and cybersecurity in a mobile environment. Besides,
UMIC and SUN Microsystems signed an agreement regarding
the use by researchers, professors, students and public
servants who work with ICT of open source software
whose rights are detained by SUN. The Portuguese Government
and Carnegie Mellon University signed a cooperation
agreement regarding research and teaching on ICT and
other subjects, intended as a further incentive to
universities internationalization. |
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