In recent years the entire legal and regulatory basis of the Portuguese Planning System underwent an ambitious and far reaching reform. However, today like in the past, the major effort in the production of new legislation and regulation was not accompanied by a similar effort in the production of planning doctrine, here understood as a vast and coherent set of planning policies and implementation measures, able to improve, from a technical and scientific point of view, and under an evidence based approach, not only the quality of planning practice but also, and foremost,its proactive role, incorporating new and emerging topics and societal challenges and concerns, promoting change and opening new transition avenues into the future. This proactive role of planning, advocated here, contrasts with its traditional conservative standing in Portugal (and in other EU Member States), of looking backwards and passively accommodating, if not slowing down, change and the social and physical reform of our cities and metropolises.   Planning can, and should, constitute a transformative device in our cities in Europe and elsewhere, particularly in the present times and with a view into the long term. Indeed, current changes seem far more deep within the existing urban tissues experiencing profound recompositions of functions and activities, than in physical terms, strictly speaking,where past investments in infrastructures and in the built environment seemed to have exceeded the real demand and generated a surplus of the building stock that, some years later, still remains partially empty or underused.   The Spatial Planning for Change (SPLACH) programme draws on some of the main areas of knowledge of thre eresearch centres CITTA, DINÂMIA'CET-IUL and GOVCOPP. Two to three main areas of knowledge were identified for each centre: post carbon cities, transformative policies, spatial planning, socio-technical system, food security,services of general interest, tourism and modeli...

Project goals: This project addresses the role of emerging energy technologies in the transition to an environmentally sustainable paradigm. It focuses on the functions played by new technology-intensive firms (NTIFs) - academic or corporate spin-offs - in the process of developing research-based renewable energy technologies, and introducing them into the market, as well as on their interactions with other key actors.Methodology:Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we will address the commercialization process of new technologies, with a view to understanding:1) the role of firms originating from academic institutions or from established companies in the market introduction of renewable energy technologies;2) the type of alliances and networks they establish and the nature and behaviour of other actors they engage with (research organizations; large energy established firms, etc.);3) the impact of policies, through incentives or through the creation of a legal framework and technical infrastructures and norms;4) the impact of institutional changes, both policy induced and deriving from social behaviour changes. Our final objective is thus to uncover the roles that emerge as a result of the strategies identified their relative prevalence and the specific configurations they assume in the energy area. The impact of particular institutional contexts will be assessed through international comparisons (with Netherlands and UK). This will enable us to typify the roles played by NTIFs in the transition to a sustainable energy regime. The results of this project will contribute to on-going research on how to achieve a regime shift, as well as to an understanding of how these processes are taking place in the Portuguese energy system, providing insights to policy formulation and supporting collective action by environmentally active social groups.

This Project intended to enlarge knowledge and to build strategic action lines over frameworks, dynamics and governance tools that may promote and strengthen urban vitalization, creativity and the cities’ competitiveness. Methodology was based on conceptual development for cross-disciplinary analytical purposes; survey of empirical information and bibliographical sources; mapping of quantitative and qualitative empirical information; confronting and enriching ongoing research with urban agents.

Our goal was to understand the role of social networks of scientific entrepreneurs in the creation and diffusion of knowledge in biotechnology, with a view of contributing to the design of S&T policies regarding the interface between science and industry appropriate to intermediate development economies. There were five different stages: literature revision, two empirical research stages, a computerized simulation tryouts stage and, finally, conclusions and consequences for the implementation of public policies.