Lisbon, Feb. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - The Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) launched the FLAD Rui Machete Prize, worth €200,000, on Sunday to honour a career of excellence in cooperation between Portugal and the United States of America.

This new prize of €200,000 will be awarded every two years, with €50,000 of the total going to a non-profit organisation, which will be chosen by the recipient.

The prize aims to honour individuals and organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to strengthening bilateral relations between Portugal and the United States, promoting the country's development, "especially in the areas of science and technology, education and academia, innovation, art and culture, the social sector and diplomacy", the foundation explained.

The nomination of candidates for the award and the final choice of the winner will be made by a jury of renowned personalities from outside FLAD.

The award is a tribute to the former president and ex-minister who led the Foundation between 1988 and 2010 and was announced today in the Foundation's auditorium in Lisbon, on the day that the programme for FLAD's 40th-anniversary celebrations, created on 20 May 1985, was also presented.

The jury for the prize will be chaired by former Portuguese prime minister Durão Barroso, former president of the European Commission.

FLAD's current president, Nuno Morais Sarmento, recalled Rui Machete as "an inescapable figure in Portuguese politics and society", who stood out as "a minister in several governments, and as president of FLAD, having been one of the great builders of its legacy".

The programme for FLAD's 40th anniversary celebrations, which will take place from 20 May to October, between Portugal and the United States, with a special presence in the Azores, was also made public today.

SIM/ADB // ADB.

Lusa