University of Évora leads two new Joint Laboratories funded by FCT

The Joint Laboratories are infrastructures that aim to achieve goals set in the scope of scientific and technological policy in Portugal. The University of Évora (UÉ) will coordinate, for the first time, two of these new Joint Laboratories, one in the area of Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory, named IN2PAST, and another dedicated to Global Change and Sustainability in Portugal, named CHANGE.

Over the last few years the University of Évora has been structuring its activity around anchor areas, where Agriculture, Food and Environment, and the Mediterranean, in the broadest sense, but also Heritage Sciences, occupy a central place. Thus, the awarding of Joint Laboratory Status to these two consortia of R&D institutions led by the UÉ "reaffirms that the structuring project of the University of Évora is on the right track, The attribution of the Joint Laboratory Status to these two consortiums of R&D institutions led by the UÉ "reaffirms that the structuring project of the University of Évora is on the right track," reacts Ana Costa Freitas Rector of the UÉ, to the recently disclosed results of the evaluation exercise conducted by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, I. P).

Coordinated by Teresa Pinto Correia, the first Joint  Laboratory totally dedicated to Global Change and Sustainability in Portugal, named Institute for Global Change and Sustainability, with the acronym CHANGE, seeks to become a reference of research and innovation for the development, evaluation and operationalization of regional, national and international policies, counting for such with a team of 316 integrated researchers, mainly in Evora, Lisbon, Beja, Faro, and the Azores.

The main objective of this Laboratory is the promotion of interdisciplinary links and contribute to make the environment more resilient and economies more sustainable. It involves researchers from the Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (MED) at the University of Évora (which coordinates), the Center for Research on Environment and Sustainability (CENSE) of the Faculty of Science and Technology, from NOVA University of Lisbon, as well as the Center for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change (CE3C) of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, both classified as Excellent in the Portuguese system of R&I (Research and Innovation) that have recently demonstrated unparalleled results at national and international levels.

The Joint  Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory (IN2PAST), coordinated by António Candeias, is dedicated to the preservation, study and promotion of cultural heritage. Assuming itself as multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary, it intends to make heritage and arts central actors in the development of society by making them meaningful, sustainable and accessible in an ever-changing cultural world. Attracting talent for the national strategy of scientific employment and scientific careers, and on the other hand, being a key actor for public policies in the area of heritage, arts and collective memory are the central objectives of IN2PAST.

 

This is a consortium with proven track record in the area of Heritage Sciences, being integrated by seven  R&D Units from five Portuguese Universities and with a research team composed of 331 Researchers, as well as access to unique equipment for the study of heritage, mostly "housed" in the HERCULES Laboratory of the UÉ.

About the Joint Laboratories:

The so-called Science Law (Decree-Law No. 63/2019), in Article 14 "The national science and technology system is integrated by the entities, structures and networks dedicated to the production, dissemination and transmission of knowledge", among which the Joint Laboratories. A Joint Laboratory is an R&D institution or a consortium between R&D institutions that is established to pursue certain national scientific and technological policy objectives. In this context, and within the scope of the strategy of diversification and densification of R&D institutions, the main objective of the Joint Laboratories should be to gather the critical mass necessary to pursue specific national scientific and technological policy objectives.

Published in 25.02.2021