Project List

This project is developed within a PhD scholarship with the funding reference PRT/BD/154375/2023.   The strategic value of the Azores is often invoked in public and academic discussions. Yet, there has been little attempt at defining it systematically. This thesis attempts to provide acomprehensive study of the strategic significance of this Portuguese archipelago, looking past contextual factors to uncover deeper patterns, by examining it as a strategic location from 1430 to 2022. Asking how these small islands fit into the grand strategies of great powers, as well as the small state that has sovereignty over them, turns the Azores into a case study in 'strategic geography' and, specifically, 'strategic islandness'. These two concepts bring value to Strategic Studies and Island Studies, respectively, since theyilluminate both the unique characteristics of small islands in strategy and the impact of strategic significance on the islands. This thesis conducts a strategic history of the islands through narrative process tracing and using mainly secondary sources. A typology of recurring strategic roles is extracted from this historical survey and then read against the p+M18resent strategic environment (2022). It finds that the main driver of strategic value of the Azores has been the strategy of the great(s) power(s) that dominates or tries to dominate Atlantic sea lanes. However, once they gain strategic value, the Azores also constrain the strategies of those great powers in unexpected ways, not least by empowering the small state of Portugal in its dealings with them. The same logic is expected to apply to other insular territories and to the Azores in the future.  Keywords: Azores, strategy, geopolitics, islands, transatlantic relation.

De que modo as associações voluntárias-populares contribuem para o desenvolvimento local? Este projeto de investigação analisará o contributo do associativismo voluntário-popular para o processo de desenvolvimento dos territórios e das comunidades, a partir de um estudo comparativo dos concelhos do Barreiro e de Loures, entre 1960-2021. Mobilizando a problemática da ação coletiva, continuada e organizada, em relação com os processos de desenvolvimento local e mudança social, pretende-se estudar as dinâmicas de ação coletiva associativa portuguesa, através de um duplo enfoque: (i) a escala mesossocial e as associações; (ii) a escala microssocial e os dirigentes associativos. Pretende-se contribuir para o avanço do conhecimento teórico-empírico sobre o associativismo popular e para a caracterização das suas organizações. Para isso, empreender-se-á uma estratégia metodológica mista, com recurso à aplicação de inquéritos por questionário às associações, realização de entrevistas em profundidade aos dirigentes e a pesquisa documental. Orientação: Nuno Nunes (CIES-Iscte) e Patrícia Ávila (CIES-Iscte)  

EDITS II is a joint project between DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte (D'C) and the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) with the aim at collaborating on the empirical and modeling analysis of new disruptive trends of technological and social innovation for reducing energy demand.

Nepalese Education in E-health - Master (NEEM) targets the shortage of specialists in health information systems in Nepal through establishing two master programmes at Kathmandu University and Pokhara University. Each programme will admit 10 students the first year and expand to 20 over a two years period. The programmes will include a lab where research students will collaborate with the Ministry of Health and other Nepalese organisations on health information systems in Nepal and which be developed into a model for the Provincial Health Information Hubs envisaged by the MoH. The labs will also be used for in-service training of health personnel. The European partners University of Oslo (UiO) and The University Institute of Lisbon have long experience in working with partners in LMICs and Europe on eHealth. The University of Oslo is also involved in projects for course development with partners in India and Africa, and course material developed in these projects will be used as a basis and adapted for Kathmandu and Pokhara universities. Eight lecturers from the Nepalese partners will be funded by the project for PhD education; one at UiO and seven at Indian universities which UiO collaborates with in academic projects in the health information systems area. Eight master students will do exchange visits between Nepal and Europe, and scholarships will be awarded to four female master students in Nepal. Expected impacts are that the master programmes will continue running after project funding ceases, that Kathmandu and Pokhara universities attract collaborative projects in Nepal and internationally, and that master programme graduates gain skills which are useful in their work.