F4S CoLAB associates with PERIN, Portugal in Europe Research and Innovation Network.
F4S was established to provide a vehicle for encouraging the internationalization of research and innovation and, thereby, to foster the Portuguese participation in the European funding programmes.
PERIN is a network between Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, ANI – Agência Nacional de Inovação, SA and the Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior (DGES). It was created with the task of strengthening and duplicating Portugal's participation in the next European Research and Innovation Framework Programme (Horizon Europe), as well as ensuring an effective convergence strategy for the Europe of knowledge in the period 2019-2030, facilitating the implementation of the 'Technological and Business Innovation Strategy for Portugal 2018-2030'.
This initiative advances strategies to allow the creation of channels with the primary purpose of research and innovation in Portugal, in the context of the EU’s next multiannual financial framework, which will run from 2021 to 2027, through the Funding Programmes Horizon Europe, European Space Program, Digital Europe, Connecting Europe, Erasmus+, among others. In this context, F4S aims to ensure Portugal's convergence with Europe by 2030, with the purpose of increasing the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy, through research, development and innovation, as well as increasing the qualification of the Portuguese population, fostering global investment in R&D and improving the conditions of qualified employment in Portugal in the international context.
F4S is a non-for-profit association dedicated to innovation in sustainable food production, designed with the support of international partners (EIT Climate KIC) and strategically headquartered in Idanha-a-Nova, a rural area with great modernization needs (Idanha-a-Nova has only 67.6% of the national average purchasing power). To date, F4S includes guidelines for increasing public and private investment in R&D, to promote sustainable, skilled and scientific value of employment and to intensify the collaboration between companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
As a result, F4S will encourage the application of the results of R&D activities in new products or processes, stimulate the creation and growth of new technology-based enterprises and build strong agricultural ecosystems with the best technology worldwide, creating high skilled jobs. This will enable cooperation from a local social & economic point of view and generate greater competitiveness of the Portuguese economy.