Dedicated to the theme “Inspire and Build,” NOVA University Lisbon’s annual celebration took place on Tuesday, the 12th, in front of an auditorium full of the University’s friends.
“This is NOVA today,” emphasised the Rector, João Sàágua, stressing that to “inspire and build,” NOVA has relied – and will continue to rely – on “the diversity of its organic Units and its community, in order to remain immensely rich and inspiring.” More: “NOVA counts on your unity and action to realise its most important projects. NOVA relies on you to inspire and build.”
In a speech reflecting on his seven-year term, Rector João Sàágua listed the university’s impressive achievements during this period, underscoring how “we have restructured our academic offerings, built knowledge and collaborative innovation, built a community.” As he put it: “we attracted many students, created many jobs at NOVA, and further internationalised the university.”
With a programme full of musical moments – presented by the Metropolitan Orchestra and also the NOVA Choir – this very special celebration included inspiring words from other members of the community as well.
“Never forget dreams drive life”
First, the audience heard from Patrícia Sampaio, the student-athlete from NOVA FCSH who moved the entire country this summer by winning a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Paris.
“It’s a pleasure to be here today participating in this day dedicated to the theme ‘inspire and build,’ which are two great guiding principles of my life,” she began, before expressing the “tremendous pride in representing Portugal” and that winning an Olympic medal was the fulfilment of a dream.
“To this day, I feel that I can’t find the right words to describe that moment,” she added, detailing how being an athlete helped her become a better person – more resilient, disciplined, and organised. “This is my experience as an athlete, but the qualities that this demanding and high-performance life instils are universal to any area in which we want to succeed,” she concluded, saying: “Never forget: dreams drive life.”
“A success that put Portugal on the world map”
Next up was Nuno Prego Ramos, an alumnus of NOVA FCT, founder and CEO of CellmAbs, a NOVA spin-off that has since crossed borders – as he himself put it to the audience, “a fast-growing European biotechnology company, born in the heart of academia.”
There are countless sources of pride – especially since, at the beginning of 2024, the company achieved the largest technology transfer agreement ever for a Portuguese company in the field of biotechnology and life sciences, made with Germany’s BioNTech, known globally for developing the first COVID-19 vaccine. The best part? “Now we’ll be producing therapeutics that, we hope, will soon reach patients around the world,” concluded Nuno Prego Ramos.
“The university is the engine of societal development”
This statement came from the next speaker, Lieutenant-General Hermínio Teodoro Maio, Commander of the Military University Institute, who reminded the audience that in a world currently at war, academic knowledge can significantly contribute to our understanding of the broader context: “The University is the engine of societal development.”
This was followed by the conferral of the title of Professor Emeritus to António Rendas (NMS|FCM), António Marques (FCSH), and Manuel Vilares (NOVA IMS) – a title granted by the university, on an exceptional basis, to professors whose contribution has been particularly outstanding – and the presentation of the 2024 Pedagogical Innovation Award. The winning project, “Can the Flipped-Classroom Methodology Make the Bioenergy Teaching & Learning Processes More Engaging?” was developed by Nuno Lapa, Inês Matos, and Márcia Ventura, assistant professor and researchers at NOVA FCT. This year’s edition also awarded three honourable mentions to projects from NOVA School of Law, NOVA IMS, and NOVA School of Business and Economics.
The programme closed with the customary conferral of insignias to the University’s new doctors – all who successfully completed this academic degree in the last academic year.
