Project List

Over the past few years, civil applications of Drones or UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) technologies have been transitioning from purely industrial applications to commercial ones and their impact on transport operations can no longer be ignored. The concept of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) has been coined to describe a new type of air traffic at very low altitude. Despite the readiness of the technology, the multidisciplinary employee teams of Local Authorities are not prepared for its integration in transport plans. There are no Training Programs for employees of Local Authorities to cultivate the required knowledge and skills to manage UAM, especially from the position of authorising, implementing and controlling UAM operations. Previous experience of Local Authorities with innovative transport services has indicated that early engagement and training of employees constitutes a key factor for the efficient integration of new technologies in transport systems.

Renewable energies (RE) generate value from the technological innovations, which allow increasing efficiency, lower investments costs, favoring the reduction of the final energy bill and energy dependence. Additionally, generates other social and economic benefits, generally not properly assessed. Domestic energy policy needs to assess them so as to shape this, enabling environmental benefits by maximizing its local social doles based on the development, production, installation and maintenance of RE technologies, increasing access to energy, reducing energy costs and resource conflicts, allowing to improve environmental quality. This research assesses the impact of new investments in solar and wind electricity generation capacity on the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and other harmful toxic gases such as SO2 or NOx, for the Central Region of Portugal. The main contribution is a global impact assessment, not only from the traditional perspective of the power generation planning, but also considering costs and benefits of economic and social aspects of the most relevant externalities. The first phase of the project assesses the impact of new solar and wind generation capacity investments on the GHG and other harmful emissions in the Central Region of Portugal, using a centralized planning model to be developed, based on the operation and investment costs of the generation units. The recent Portuguese National Plan for Energy and Climate (NPEC) objectives will be considered. This region has been chosen due to its relevance in the national energy sector and positive contribution to Europe's energy efficiency and RE commitments. For example, 70% of its final electricity consumption is based on renewable generation, while the national average is 59.1%. The second phase assesses the local effects of its most relevant externalities such as decreasing emissions, lowering electricity prices, decreasing energy dependence, new business model’s creation (such as RE commu...

The global COVID-19 crisis triggered major changes across societies around the world disrupting the way we live and conduct business. Across Europe, the measures and restrictions enforced due to the pandemic have led to sudden changes in many paradigms paving the way for new business models and market exchanges. This dramatic disruption has accelerated some socio-economic trends, which were visible before the COVID-19 crisis, such as the adoption of sophisticated technology and data solutions to facilitate human-centered, people-smart, and sustainable operation models; the incorporation of sustainability and climate mitigation as non-negotiable principles of operating and doing businesses and last but not least, relying on smart data evidence-based solutions to guide decision making for optimal commercial and sustainability performance. The tourism industry is one of the global economic sectors that is most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated with its economic downturn, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation. UNWTO data states that the current crisis is responsible for a global fall in export revenues of between EUR 750-900 billion and a loss of direct jobs that could be between 100 and 200 million. With the fall in profits and lack of certainty for stable markets, the recovery shortly of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which according to UNWTO shoulder 80% of global tourism, is at stake. With lost revenues and subsequently, talent drain to other economic sectors, tourism SMEs face the need to adapt at a time of crisis with constraint capacities. Through the design of a dynamic technological solution (platform) for knowledge-transfer and experience exchange made available to a network of tourism SME clusters across six countries, this project will demonstrate how digitalization can accelerate innovation and uptake of new sustainability solutions in a sector that is built up mostly of small enterprises with limited resources for n...

The project aims to develop and test an innovative methodological approach to impact assessment directed to the next generation of public policies financed with European Community funds (2021-2027). This methodological approach is anchored in the triangulation of three basic methods: Policy–Scientific Approach, Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Contingent Valuation Method. The implementation and testing of the methodological proposal will focus on Investment Priority 08 of Portugal 2020 and its social housing support operations (developed under the regional operational programmes). This option seeks to build an impact methodology framed in the logic of “theory-based evaluation” and in the “realist evaluation” type that maximizes the potential of combining two essential theories for the current Public Policy Science, programming theory and causal theory, also taking as a milestone the determination of two basic pillars of public governance: the logic of results-oriented public policies and the principle of evidence-based policies. It is considered that the main added value of this proposal is not so much in the overall calculation of the effects of the interventions, but rather in the possibility of knowing in detail the causal relationships that result from them, attributing to it an effective economic value, no longer only in the perspective of the achievements, but above all from the perspective of the real impact.

Project objectives The project has set out three principal objectives: (i) to cultivate innovative curricular methods that instil a cross-domain entrepreneurship mindset in students, addressing both social and economic challenges in collaboration with relevant stakeholders; (ii) to enhance digital competencies with practical applications in developing skills essential for fostering entrepreneurial activities, ensuring that these competencies are integral to core curricular models; (iii) to operate within a transnational environment, enabling participants to glean insights from each other and share best practices, while addressing pan-European challenges and perspectives that enrich and expand project outcomes. Project activities Our focus has been on transforming transnational cooperation into robust curricular material that addresses the digital skills and cross-domain entrepreneurial competencies of students, equipping them to confront societal challenges. To achieve this, the project has anchored its outcomes in the following activities: (i) mapping digital skills and cross-domain entrepreneurial competencies; (ii) identifying or customizing existing curricular materials in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs); (iii) facilitating international student projects to foster skill and competence acquisition through action learning; (iv) engaging with local communities to implement actions that enhance the entrepreneurial role of universities (the third mission of universities); (v) creating a pedagogical and informative handbook detailing the actions taken and results achieved. Project results The handbook on digital skills and cross-domain entrepreneurial competencies stands as the primary project outcome. It enables educators, teachers, and trainers globally to learn from a meticulously planned process, providing support to local groups associated with civic society in enhancing their understanding of effectively addressing societal challenges through dedicated...