This projects aims to contribute to a substantive and deeper knowledge on this subject. Thus, the central question and driver of the project is that of scientific development in Associated Laboratories – this choice of the empirical object is justified in the “Plan and Methods”- and their contribution to improve technological innovation in firms. To achieve this goal, particular attention will be given to the following analysis dimensions: the forms of producing and organizing scientific activity in laboratories, the scientific life of researchers and their values orientation, the types of funding (public/private) and their impact in the scientists careers and in the modalities of “transfer of knowledge” to firms, as well as to the internationalization of science.

This research aims to analyse graduates and professionals of the domain of nutrition and food in Portugal, particularly in what concerns the professional activity and graduation within nutrition, dietetics and food engineering. This study includes a revision of the current academic degrees in these areas in Portugal, of the professional activity of workers related with these matters within the labour market and also of the associative movement of this work. In this sense, we intent to develop a study about the professional and associative field related with the associative movement of this professional activity.

The ICT skills shortage has been growingly mediated by the political power, at a national and European level, as an obstacle to the economic competitiveness and development. In fact, the eEurope Action Plans diagnose the existence of a growing lack in skills, namely in ICT sector, where the number of working posts that remain vacant is increasing. Presently, in what refers to the Portuguese situation, the referred mismatch between the offer and search of ICT professionals as well as its significance is mostly unstudied. This project aims at analysing this mismatch as well as the measures designed to cope with it, within the specificity of the Portuguese situation. The central hypothesis orienting this research is: the ICT skills shortage is strongly influenced by the asymmetry between the logic and rhythm of the development of the economic and educational systems. Within this general framework, three analytical vectors will be addressed: 1) the processes and the conditions that model the search for ICT professionals; 2) the conditions that model the offer of ICT training; 3) the factors conditioning the search for ICT training.

The study of the relationship between qualification systems and systems of formal and informal regulation of the Portuguese labour market represents the main objective of this project. The starting hypothesis of the research is that in specific sectors of economic activity the lack of demanding labour-market regulating mechanisms and instruments, from the perspective of formal qualifications, has the effect of removing the pressure on formal qualification systems to perform better. This research project aims to describe the ways of recruiting groups with different qualification levels and integrating them into the labour market and to analyse how they are affected unequally by phenomena such as precarious labour, unemployment and the development of new forms of work organization;  to describe the factors that condition the present performance of the Portuguese educational system and phenomena like repetition of a year or early school-leaving (dropping out of school), in particular before the end of compulsory education.