Manuel Frederico Tojal de Valsassina Heitor (born 1958) is a Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education in the government of Prime Minister António Costa since 26 November 2015[update] until 30 March 2022 when he was succeeded by Elvira Fortunato.

[2][3] Heitor graduated with a PhD in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London, and did a post-doctoral at the University of California, San Diego.

[4] When Portugal held the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2021, he chaired the meetings of the EU research ministers.

Since leaving government, Heitor has been a visiting research professor at New York University's Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), and at the NYU Marron Institute.

[6] Also since 2023, Heitor has been chairing an expert group entrusted to support the interim evaluation of the European Union's Horizon Europe programme.