Together towards triumph

By João Sousa*

First of all, I would like to thank BIP for the opportunity to express a few words regarding the functioning of this institution.

I am a collaborator in the Power Systems Unit since September 2006 for which I may not be the greatest “connaisseur” of INESC Porto’s reality.

I proudly represent this Institution, in virtue of its grandiosity, technological sophistication, utility and reality of the projects developed here. However, I will take this opportunity to highlight some aspects that, in my opinion, may benefit the institution.

I believe INESC Porto is going through a moment of change: so far it has been oriented towards academic research and worked as a research institution, and now it is going through a mutation process with the purpose of turning to companies and keeping up with the research progress within them.

INESC Porto owns a good image both in national and international territories at an academic level, but outside of that, it is not very acknowledged, which may imply an additional effort in marketing campaigns with the media, although the quality of our work is more important than marketing.

On the other hand, I think there is not a proper articulation between the several Units of the institution. Each Unit works according to their philosophy as if they were a company, neglecting the whole of the Institution.

There is lack of internal communication among the Units, lack of promotion of the work developed (if the people who work here don’t know their own work, how can we promote it?; why don’t we promote the work developed in an open day of each Unit?) and sometimes there is competition between the Units.

Due to the projects’ multidisciplinar character, the effort made by the several Units would end in a faster and more effective development. Competition is healthy and often a vehicle to progress, however, we – the people who work here – must be united in order to triumph. Our “enemies” are outside, not inside.

In this context, I must mention the activities carried out to promote the union and the knowledge between collaborators, from which I stand out the football tournament. Very much like the training annual plan, there should be an activities annual plan, as long as they are inserted in a spirit of development of the work group.

TOGETHER WE SHALL SUCCEED!

* Collaborator in the Power Systems Unit (USE)