In March 2005, Prof. Heitor was appointed Secretary of State for Science, Technology and
Higher Education in Portugal.
Manuel Heitor is also Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Instituto Superior
Técnico (IST – the engineering school of the Technical University of Lisbon) as well as cofounder and current director of the IST´s “Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research”.
His research interests include the management of technology and the development of engineering and innovation policies and engineering design. In 1999 he was appointed National Coordinator of the Evaluation of Research Units by the Portuguese Minister of Science and Technology, and has coordinated the evaluation of the Mechanical Engineering panel in 1996. In 2000, under the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, he chaired the international Conference on “Towards a learning society : Innovation and competence building with social cohesion for Europe”.