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CEF develops research, post-graduate education, and outreach activities on issues dealing with forests, agro-forestry systems semi-natural areas, and forest-based industrial chains. CEF shares the EU Forest2020 da UE vision of forests and semi-natural areas as vital, productive and multifunctional ecosystems, contributing to sustainable development and human well-being, in a healthy environment.
Current challenges focus on dependencies between people and the natural environment, regional dimensions of global change, globalization of risks and economic instability, delivery of ecosystem services, the re-emergence of green chemistry and forest-based biorefineries.
CEF is committed to an international perspective on research issues and fosters a diverse academic community. Most of our experimental research is located in Portugal, but it extends to the Mediterranean region and to tropical and sub-tropical regions and encompasses global approaches.
CEF has elected four strategic research areas:
– Analysis of ecosystem structure and function, modeling energy fluxes, carbon and water cycles responses to global change drivers as environmental stresses (e.g. drought), and disturbances (e.g. fire);
– Valuation, protection, vulnerability assessment and adaptive management of forest and semi-natural ecosystems, as well as market and non-market environmental services;
– Sustainable resource management, including cork and timber production, silviculture, policy and economics;
– Wood and non-wood forest products, including product and process innovation, green chemistry and biorefineries.
The strategy vectors of CEF include also:
– A strong commitment to doctoral education as a privileged means to foster research and scientific outputs and inter-institutional cooperation;
– A structured interaction with stakeholders and society.
Manuela Branco
Contact: mrbranco@isa.ulisboa.pt
The CEG’s scientific activity is carried out in close co-operation with the teaching of Geography at IGOT-ULisboa. It is carried out freely and with full respect for the ethics of scientific research, accepting no political, religious or ideological constraints. The CEG can provide services and carry out research work for public or private, national or foreign organisations, with remuneration allocated to the staff involved and its operation, in accordance with general legislation and the rules of IGOT and ULisboa.
The Center for Geographical Studies (CEG) is an organic subunit of research and development, integrated in the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning (IGOT) of the University of Lisbon (ULisboa) and enjoys statutory, administrative and scientific autonomy.
Founded in 1943, by Professor Orlando Ribeiro, it is the main reference in the research and dissemination of geographical knowledge in Portugal and one of the most prestigious research units at the international level.
The CEG’s mission is to develop research in Geography and promote and disseminate geographic knowledge, aiming to contribute to the development of communities and regions, the correct planning of the territory, the sustainability of environmental resources and spatial justice, at different scales.
For the accomplishment of its purposes, it has the following responsibilities:
– To undertake research and studies of a fundamental and applied nature and promote the dissemination of results;
– Edit and promote the publication of scientific and didactic works;
– Organize scientific courses and meetings;
– Promote exchanges with similar, national and foreign institutions;
– Prepare and provide bibliographic, cartographic and audiovisual information in analog or digital media relevant to Geography and Spatial Planning, within the scope of IGOT and ULisboa;
– Support the training of new researchers.
José Luís Zêzere
Contact: zezere@campus.ul.pt
Since ecology is the scientific matrix of CFE, with research focused in the fields of climate change, water and food management, protection of the oceans, biodiversity, ecosystem services, among others, CFE researchers will pursue a greater commitment to promote sustainable development, in a concerted, transdisciplinary, transnational and translational vision, supported by knowledge sharing. Therefore, the global mission of the CFE fully embodies the priorities of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with researchers being stimulated to give priority to systemic thinking with relevance at local, national and international levels.
The Centre for Functional Ecology – Science for People & the Planet (CFE) is a R&D unit hosted by the Department of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra that brings together researchers from all fields of ecology, integrating knowledge from genes to the biome level to disentangle the mechanisms responsible for biodiversity maintenance, and for the composition, structure and functioning of biological communities and ecosystems. CFE holds a strong commitment to knowledge transfer to the general public and to the productive sector, with emphasis on the sustainability of territories and local communities.
Since its creation in 2007, the CFE has experienced a remarkable growth in size, scope and impact. At present, CFE is composed by 149 integrated PhD researchers and a total of about 355 researchers organized in 9 strategic research groups:
1 – Terrestrial Ecosystems and Global Change;
2 – Biodiversity, Conservation and Ecosystem Services;
3 – Marine and Coastal Ecosystems;
4 – Soil and Freshwater Stress Ecology;
5 – Forest Ecology;
6 – Forensic Anthropology and Paleobiology;
7 – Societies and Environmental Sustainability;
8 – History, Territories and Communities;
9 – Bioeletronics and Bioenergy.
Each of these groups pursues its own clear R&D goals, but with very strong and fluid collaborations among all research groups, a hallmark of CFE since its creation. In addition, CFE inscribes two cross-cutting thematic lines: The UNESCO Chair on Biodiversity Safeguard for Sustainable Development and the Open Science. The activity of the latter will be facilitated by the creation of a Participatory Council, representative of the civil society and of entities with potential interest in the research produced by CFE, in an effort for an effective translational ecology approach.
Helena Freitas
Contact: hfreitas@uc.pt
ISAMB aims to be an internationally competitive and nationally relevant centre for research, education & training, economic & social innovation and outreach, focused on the complex and closely intertwined relationships between the environment, the impact of human activity upon it, and in turn the influence of environment upon health and wellbeing, aspects that make up the Environmental Health scope.
Overall, Environmental Health can be defined as the assessment and management of “modifiable” environmental influences from chemical, physical, biological, social, psychological factors on human health and wellbeing, as well as all behaviours related to the physical, social and cultural environment. As a science, Environmental Health is concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment that may affect human beings, from the earliest stages of development throughout life. It is often referred to as preventive health since if managed and implemented effectively, Environmental Health can reduce disease burden, increase productivity and reduce the demand on the health services.
Being Environmental Health at the crossroad of environment, society and health, ISAMB’s mission is to advance excellence in research, education and outreach, to contribute to national and global public health improvement, preventing and reducing the burden of environmentally associated disease and protecting and promoting health and wellbeing, also contributing to increase productivity and reduce the demand on both health services and the inequalities in exposure and health. Ultimately ISAMB aims to contribute to the national effort to promote R&D and innovation forwards to 2020 and beyond, and to address current and future Societal Challenges, specifically in Environmental Health issues.
On these days of unparalleled global environmental change and huge social and economic turmoil, advancing knowledge on the relationships between the environment and health and wellbeing has never been more important, not only to prevent disease, but also to know how to take advantage of all the opportunities posed by supportive environments to tackle major health, social and economic problems. Nevertheless, there is a vast gap in critical knowledge and in the education, training, implementation and management of Environmental Health issues, which hinders national and global efforts to reduce and eliminate diseases that might be prevented by better managing environmental factors, or to efficiently explore the natural and built environment in an innovative way for the benefit of the health and wellbeing.
Therefore, to support the ISAMB’s mission while taking into consideration its situation related to both internal (strengths) and external (opportunities) conditions, the ISAMB’s aims for the next years will include:
– Become an internationally-recognised centre of excellence and a relevant hub of knowledge and expertise in Environmental Health;
– Become a relevant and competitive Environmental Health research centre in the country;
– Ensure that the most relevant areas and the complexity of the Environmental Health issues are addressed by the research carried out within the Institute;
– Ensure networking, build partnerships with key stakeholders and foster links with both national and international complementary R&D groups;
– Ensure networking, build partnerships with key stakeholders and foster links with both national and international complementary R&D groups;
– Engage with key stakeholders and make the ISAMB’s outputs relevant for their products and services;
– Support the Environmental Health decision process, in the public, private and third sectors, as well as at local, regional and national levels, mainly on the most relevant threats to health and beneficial influences from the environment;
– Enable the ISAMB to compete successfully for research funds and ensure long-term financial sustainability.
Ana Abreu
Contact: isamb-coord@medicina.ulisboa.pt
LEAF (Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food) was created in 2013 from the merging of four previous R&D Units of Instituto Superior de Agronomia: CBAA-Centro de Botânica Aplicada à Agricultura, CEER-Centro de Engenharia dos Biossistemas, CEAPCC- Centro de Estudos de Arquitetura Paisagista “Prof. Francisco Caldeira Cabral” and UIQA-Unidade de Investigação em Química Ambiental.
The research promoted by LEAF focuses on the whole agro-food chain, dealing with main issues on a variety of scales, from cells and microorganisms to landscape design, in favor of knowledge and the promotion of effective solutions aimed at conserving natural resources and the increased production and quality of food.
LEAF is also committed to postgraduate training, innovation, technology transfer, internationalization and the dissemination of knowledge. To meet these challenges, it is organized into three Research Groups that are interconnected into four Thematic Lines.
LEAF is organised into four Thematic Lines (TLs), interconnecting different scientific areas and skills from the research groups, thus promoting synergies within and beyond LEAF. These TLs address relevant issues (Sustainable Grape & Wine production; Olive & Olive Oil Chain; Tropical Agriculture & Agri-Food value chains; Green & Blue Infrastructures) where LEAF can excel beyond any other existing research unit in Portugal. Within each Group, specific activities on cutting-edge topics will be maintained and when appropriate results will lead to new products or processes and progressively into more comprehensive and inclusive programmes. Thus, the TLs are not static, but dynamic, allowing adjustments according to research results and interactions with stakeholders.
Main research goals:
– to develop multidisciplinary research on the adaptation of agriculture to Climate Change & Resource Scarcity and contribute to mitigate their impacts;
– to improve crop and pest management practices for sustainable crop production;
– to contribute to a sustainable agriculture, with an emphasis on the quality and best management of soils and water, and on the efficient use of organic by-products from industry and municipalities to support recycling of carbon, nitrogen and other plant nutrients, as soil amendments or to produce bio-energy;
– to seek an integrated strategy to maintain crop biodiversity in cultivated landscapes with evaluation and characterization of biodiversity within crops (fruits, grapevine, vegetables and cereals) and wild species, in which Portugal is exceptionally rich;
– to apply conservation strategies which anticipate shifts on both critical and endangered plants and habitats;
– to manage Green & Blue infrastructures to sustain ecosystem functions;
to unravel gene networks and mechanisms that coordinately act to determine tolerance or sensitivity to biotic and abiotic stress conditions at the whole-plant level, in order to evaluate crops plasticity in relation to yield and quality;
– to develop new processes in food production to obtain new functional foods and products which are sustainable, healthy, convenient, safe, economic, sensory acceptable, and with extended shelf-life;
– to seek for sustainable, safe and healthy animal products that minimize environmental impacts;
– to create sustainable agro-food value chains of selected clusters with a strong potential in the Portuguese economy, and model agricultural products and derived food matrices.
Isabel de Sousa
Contact: isabelsousa@isa.ulisboa.pt
Instituto Superior de Agronomia
Tapada da Ajuda
1349-017 Lisboa – Portugal
+351 213653517
terra@labterra.pt
SPONSOR
DOI 10.54499/LA/P/0092/2020
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DOI 10.54499/LA/P/0092/2020