The Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education Elvira Fortunato stated on Sunday 26 November that the renegotiation with three US universities is under way.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, the agreement currently in force with the three institutions "will end on 31 December", yet in a context of automatic renewal until 2030. This is the reason why the "Government, through the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), initiated a process to renegotiate a new agreement".

"As such, the FCT sent a letter to these institutions with the terms of the new renegotiation, where it states it intends to preserve "international cooperation beyond the termination of this specific agreement" in a strategy that serves the current and future challenges of future and technology globally in the different fields of knowledge", the document clarifies.

At stake are the partnerships with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Austin, Texas, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Proof of the Government’s commitment to maintain and strengthen partnerships, the statement goes on to say [that] "agreements were signed with the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, both of these to foster academic exchange between Portugal and the United States and make Portuguese science international". In the same sense, there is a strengthening of the alliances with European universities and likewise with universities in South Korea, always following the principle that international partnerships must be made with the best world universities.

 According to the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, the content of the proposal to renegotiate the partnerships "came from the inputs and opinions of the Portuguese Universities’ Council of Deans, the Associate Laboratories Council, the National Science, Technology and Innovation Council, the FCT Scientific councils, and other bodies belonging to the Portuguese science and technology ecosystem that were heard and were at the basis of the decision".