On 18 September 2019, NOVA hosted the second edition of the NOVA Science Day, this year dedicated to the talent of NOVA.
The opening was done by the Rector of NOVA, Professor João Sàágua who referred that ”The consistent efforts and excellence of our talented researchers have made NOVA become a research-oriented university and, most importantly, a university that combines fundamental research with collaborative agendas tackling real problems and challenges posed by society, their institutions, and the sustainable development goals, in what we call a general mission-oriented approach to research.“
The keynote speeches were delivered by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Professor Manuel Heitor and the President of the European Research Council, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon who stressed the importance of interdisciplinarity in science.
The NOVA Science Day was also the stage for the announcement and award ceremony of the Santander/NOVA Collaborative Research Award 2018/2019, this year in the area of Exact Sciences and Engineering, to researcher Ana Pimentel, of CENIMAT/i3N, NOVA School of Science and Technology, and researcher Vanessa Jorge Pereira, of ITQB NOVA/ iBET, with the project “PlaTiNa – Low cost platforms based on Nano-heterostructures of TiO2/WO3 to apply in Photocatalysis”.
Doctoral students had the opportunity to present and share their work in a poster session.
The talent of NOVA was showcased throughout the afternoon with presentations by some of the researchers with ERC grants. All of the twenty ERC grantees of NOVA were honored later in the event.
Professor Elvira Fortunato closed the day highlighting the objective of this initiative which “aims to promote interdisciplinarity as a first step towards boosting creativity and innovation.”
The Vice-Rector for Research stressed the importance of the ERC programme as the best research funding instrumentin the world since it supports all fields of science in the basis of scientific excellence and reinforced that “this year we have celebrated the talent of NOVA, and especially we would like to acknowledge the extraordinary and excelente work of our ERC grantees. We are very proud of your achievements!”
