Facial recognition technologies collect billions of faces that are stored for multiple uses spanning individual identification and tracking, to training of deep neural networks, the mainstay of modern artificial intelligence (AI). From tagging a photo on social media or unlocking a computer, to controversial applications of facial recognition in public spaces, schools, workplaces, and law enforcement activities, facial processing technologies have entered almost every aspect of our lives. While expected benefits relate to security and safety, critics highlight that these technologies normalize surveillance and erode privacy, exacerbate discrimination, and contain insurmountable flaws and inaccuracy. The fAIces project asks: What matters in facial recognition technologies, and why? How politics of mattering enact diverse ways of being implicated? Which forms of citizenship and public engagement are affected? How multiple and complex ethical choices emerge? This study develops a novel methodology by which the perspectives of social groups that have never been studied together, which are jointly but antagonistically implicated in facial recognition technologies, are taken into consideration: scientists who conduct research on facial recognition; professionals working in start-ups and technology companies; members of advocacy groups and activists; black communities; and artists who incorporate facial recognition in their work. The fAIces project will produce an innovative social theory of the face through the combination of a new conceptual approach – “etho-assemblages”, which transgresses the idea of pre-given fixed and dichotomic ethical principles – and the generation of original empirical data. Major outcomes are based on expanding ethics and imagining alternative futures, fueling citizenship and public engagement, and fostering opportunities for academic thinking to be inspired by activism, underrepresented groups, and artistic practices.

Doctoral education in Portugal has undergone structural and institutional changes, resulting in new and diverse educational and research designs. Doctoral education in Portugal has undergone structural and institutional changes, resulting in new and diverse educational and research designs. These changes have affected doctoral programmes significantly. Some of the main debates regarding recent changes revolve around tailor-made programmes for individuals versus compulsory, pre-structured courses; basic research skills versus transferable skills; degree duration and expected completion times; different forms of financial support; innovative support practices and programmes; types of academic guidance and training opportunities; and the impact of digitalisation. Other trends include the expansion of collaborative partnerships and international exchanges, such as university-industry partnerships, cooperation with other sectors of society, and international associations between similar universities. These changes are centred around students' motivations, experiences, purposes, and achievements. It is also necessary to consider their future orientation, taking account to doctorate education elsewhere.

Knowledge creation is at a sustainability crossroad. This is evidenced by a global decline in research breakthroughs despite increasing production of scientific publications. To promote a sustainable development of science, it has become important to diagnose the underlying causes of this paradox, and through this, promote policies which encourage a process of knowledge advancement that is sustainable and fosters public participation in science and technology to better tackle contemporary societal challenges. This project focus on the analysis of individual research agendas of researchers in academic and non-academic settings, identifying the course they are taking, the factors influencing them, and how to encourage agendas aligned with current global sustainable development goals. This will begin with the analysis of identified issues, such as the effects of the publish-or-perish paradigm, and the gender gap in science, associated with an analysis of macro-economic, social, and cultural dimensions at a country level. Particular focus will be given to identifying the determinants of agendas which tackle societal challenges, and those which promote public engagement and participation, as these are the ones which directly focus on critical challenges such as climate change and assist in bringing science to the service of populations. The study will make use of an already available dataset of 21.016 researchers from 165 countries and all fields of science, containing career and bibliometric data, information regarding their research agendas, organizational context, and other individual-level information. The dataset will be linked with the Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM) dataset, which contains 450 macro-economic, social, and cultural indicators, arrayed longitudinally, for 202 countries. This will allow for a systemic analysis of the determinants of research agendas, from the macro-level to the micro-level. Knowing what leads researchers to pursue society-driven a...

Public engagement (PE) with S&T has become a crucial activity for academic and research organisations. While communication amongst academics, universities and the public is nothing new, it takes on added urgency in a world of global science and competition among universities for students, staff and funding. This, together with the requirements from governments and funders for institutions to address economic and social problems with research has resulted in mounting pressure on institutions to demonstrate the impact of research on society. Research on PE activities has mainly focused on individual scientists, with little attention paid to the institutional structures for communication. Our ongoing research MORE'PE project (2016-2020) has been pioneer in contributing to this gap by mapping communication at the level of research institutes (RIs) (meso-level) within academic institutions in 10 countries around the world. The proposed project 'OPEN - Organisational Public ENgagement' (2018-2021) aims continue this mapping at the central level of organisations. The study will be conducted in Portugal, the UK, Italy and Germany. The team brings together experts in large-scale surveys and the local knowledge to implement the surveys locally. This will be the first empirical work of such type. It will also have impacts at the political, institutional and societal levels by producing evidence that can inform institutional policies and practices to better engage society in research and generate indicators to measure institutional PE. This project is coordinated by Marta Entradas (PI), and received funding from the national research agency FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia) (240.000 euros) (Ref: PPTDC/COM-OUT/30022/2017).