Lista de Projetos

Experts have continuously tried to raise public awareness of the relevance of science in a bid to assure quality of life in the future while achieving sustainability and bridging the gap between scientists and society. This gives researchers the opportunity to perceive the main concerns of society as well as how their work is seen and understood by the public; moreover, it gives them the chance to engage young people in science. The EU-funded SCINAT project is taking on this challenge, trying to involve the public with research activities organised across urban areas in Portugal. Its main aim is to answer societal concerns about how to face global challenges by preserving natural and cultural heritage, ecosystems and resources, atthe same time improving quality of life.

The outbreak of Covid-19 has had a profound impact on all the social, economic and political life of practically all societies. To help contain the virus and limit pressures on national health care systems, spatial mobility has also been severely affected. Motivated by the rapid spread of Covid-19, countries around the world closed their borders, airlines cancelled their flights and people have been told to stay at home by their governments, limiting human circulation in a manner unprecedented in the post-war period. As a border-crossing and now a border-closing related phenomenon, the global flow of international students has been severely disrupted by social isolation measures put in place without consideration of the consequences for mobility-dependent individuals, a predicament that invites research and analysis. Looking at the Portuguese case, this situation not only reflects the challenges raised by the pandemic in regard to how institutions dependent upon mobility function, but also existing inequalities between the Global North and the Global South, and the socio-economic differentials that have shaped individual experiences of the lockdown: what has become for a many forced displacement from sending countries or an involuntary return home. Some people are evidently better equipped or better situated to cope with the sudden immobility than others. Special attention in our work is given to the impact of lockdown on the quotidian routines of international students, taking into account the new, and existing, challenges they now face, as well as the effectiveness of the response made by host institutions. Empirical evidence is drawn from 30 interviews conducted with international students who were attending Portuguese universities during the lockdown, providing us with illustrations of their capacity to cope with what we have termed ‘pandemic immobility’.

O projecto, desenvolvido em colaboração com as agências públicas portuguesas IAPMEI e AICEP, pretende contribuir para a melhoria da gestão dos incentivos ao investimento empresarial, recorrendo a várias abordagens de aprendizagem automática que permitem identificar níveis de risco operacional e estratégico dos projectos, nas fases de análise de candidaturas e de verificação de pedidos de pagamento. O projecto deverá resultar na produção de scorings de risco que possam auxiliar as actividades de análise e verificação na gestão dos incentivos. Os principais tipos de risco a analisar incluem: • Risco de anulação do projecto (antes ou depois do contrato, por iniciativa do promotor ou das autoridades públicas) • Risco de devolução de incentivo (por anulação do projecto, incumprimento do contrato, não certificação de adiantamento, inconformidade da despesa ou outros motivos) • Risco de não-utilização do incentivo aprovado • Risco de inclusão de despesas inelegíveis (nos pedidos de adiantamentos contra-factura, na certificação pagamentos intercalares ou nos pedidos de reembolso) • Não cumprimento das metas contratualizadas

Population growth, increased prosperity and rapid urbanization are bringing global demand for natural resources to a point increasingly beyond the Earth’s carrying capacity. Together with climate change, those pressures are causing significant environmental degradation in many parts of the planet. Latin America is particularly vulnerable. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute urgent calls and drivers for higher education to be part of future generations of engaged citizens aware of their role in creating fair and healthy societies. The Change the Climate project addresses three main needs: environmental management at all levels of higher education activities, integration of environmental management with sustainability strategies and institutional quality management, and customized strategies for sustainability in education. The project’s main goal is to increase Latin-American University’s contribution to Sustainable Development, through the implementation of environmental systematic practices and quality processes in alignment with the UN SDGs, improving the management and operations of higher education institutions.  The project will deliver tools and guides for environmental impact analysis and SDGs mapping in campus operations and educational activities. An environmental management system will be implemented in each partner university decreasing their environmental impact; sustainability awareness will be assessed thoughout the academic communities; strategies for sustainability in higher education will be developed for curricula improvement; and a common open online course on sustainability will be created in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The project’s impact will reach stakeholders beyond the project partnership at local, regional and national levels contributing to behavioural change for sustainable futures.