The participation of students from the University of Madeira (UMa) in the conference which S.D.M. will carry out at the end of October, regarding the development of small islands economies, the support of UMa to S.D.M. through its department of Mathematics and Engineering and the support of S.D.M. to an initiative of the Chemistry department of UMa, are concrete examples of the relationship of cooperation being developed by both entities.

In order to formalize and promote other initiatives of common interest, taking into consideration the improvement of the students training and the development of activities with the entrepreneurial sector, S.D.M. and UMa signed a protocol of cooperation.

Among other things, this cooperation aims at assuring the participation of teachers, researchers and students of the university in entrepreneurial projects, to have the cooperation of students in the elaboration of studies, opinion polls, as well as in economic and statistics surveys, and to provide students with an opportunity to work in companies of the International Business Centre of Madeira, trough training periods and internships.

As stressed by Francisco Costa, President of S.D.M., “any society aware of its future needs can not ignore the meaning of initiatives of this nature”. Pedro Telhado Pereira, the Dean of UMa, referred two aspects: that “the entrepreneurial sector has many things to teach to the university”, and that “both areas must work side by side”.