The Regional Secretary for Education, Science and Culture has created a working group that will draw up a support document for the definition of a Science Policy for the Azores.

According to the order published in the Official Journal today, this working group comprises personalities that make up the scientific commission of the conference "Science in the Azores - Which future?," held in Ponta Delgada in June 2013, with the aim of drawing advantage of the previous work and synergies."

José Azevedo, Gilberta Rocha, Nelson Simões, Ricardo Santos and Pedro Raposeiro are the members of this working group. They will also conclude the minutes of that symposium in order to have them published on the internet site of the Regional Government in March.

The order signed by Luiz Fagundes Duarte highlights "the importance attached by the Regional Government of the Azores to Science and its role in the promotion of a regional, smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, which is in line with Europe 2020 Strategy."

The implementation of a Regional Scientific Policy requires "a strategic planning that serves as the basis to analyse the capacity of scientific areas in the Azores - human, material and financial resources - as well as to define, based on precise and consensual criteria, the regional priorities for research and their importance in a regional, national and international context.