Development policies in the EU and technology foresight: an experiment in Portugal Available to Purchase

A national technology foresight project was developed in Portugal in 1999 and 2000 (ET2000) with the major objective to understand and to boost the contribution of engineering and technology (E&T), to improve the competitiveness of Portuguese firms. This project was based on multiple networks promoting debate and interchange of perspectives between policy makers, administration, business and university experts. The work carried out was oriented to support the design and the implementation of policies to develop Portugal as a knowledge‐economy using E&T as a main comparative advantage achieving higher levels of internationalization, competitiveness and sustainability. Major features of ET2000 as well as its contribution to policy making are presented in this paper.