Science and engineering are central to building a sustainable future. It is through science and engineering that the knowledge and tools are developed that allow us to create, build and shape the future. NOVA FCT aims to establish itself as a reference community that, together with the entire NOVA University, contributes to constructing a sustainable future from a multidisciplinary perspective.
We build a sustainable future in the development of science with an impact on fundamental areas to face global challenges. We build a sustainable future through technological innovation and knowledge transfer with an impact on society. We build a sustainable future by educating a new generation that will continue to build the future around the world.
The education of this new generation must continue to be based on teaching with a solid grounding and strong laboratory exposure that goes hand in hand with the production of knowledge. This has been a hallmark of NOVA FCT, and we want to maintain it and develop it more and more towards teaching that is guided by the problems posed by global challenges. Today, however, teaching cannot be limited to scientific and technical skills, and it is our duty to foster in students a spirit of openness and criticism, of freedom and autonomy, which will allow them not only to adapt to a world in constant flux but also to become protagonists of this flux, actors in the construction of the future.
For education to go hand in hand with the production of knowledge, we must increasingly be a school that produces knowledge and develops competitive scientific research, with international recognition, in areas fundamental to meeting global challenges. And this production of knowledge cannot be divorced from the society that surrounds us, and we will know how to transfer knowledge to society.
Only in this way will we be able to make a difference, and only in this way will we be able to fulfil our commitment as a public school to return to society the investment it makes in us.
We are well aware that in order to respond to current global challenges, we need to articulate knowledge from the various fields of science and engineering. This will not be enough; we will need to integrate it even more fully with other areas of knowledge, together with all of NOVA, from a truly interdisciplinary perspective. This is our commitment to the University, contributing to making NOVA a reference institution in interdisciplinary activities.
Like NOVA, FCT is and will be a global and civic school. Global because "your teaching and research will take place in a truly international environment of the highest level". Civic because "all its activities will be deeply committed to the sustainable development of society, culture and the economy in the region where it is located, in the country, in Europe and also in Portuguese-speaking countries.