"Did you know that the Iberian Peninsula has the opportunity to become a leading European laboratory for the production of renewable energy?" Or: "Did you know that biomethane, a sustainable alternative to natural gas, has immense potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Or even: "Did you know that used electric car batteries have a huge potential to revolutionise the entire energy industry?
In a provocative tone, these challenges are visible in the different posters that are hanging on the walls of the Innovation and Analytics Lab of the NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS), where the group of specialists from the different organic units of the NOVA University of Lisbon have accepted the challenge to join the first NIRC - NOVA Interdisciplinary Research Community (NIRC), dedicated to Sustainable Energy Systems.
Opening this second NIRC workshop, this Wednesday 17th, after the kick-off meeting at the end of last year, Isabel Rocha, Vice-Rector in charge of Research, Innovation, and Value Creation, made a point of welcoming them and reaffirming NOVA's commitment to facing the emerging challenges of the topic.
Immediately afterward, Guilherme Vitorino, coordinator of this NOVA IMS laboratory, explained the order of work: during the afternoon, they would be presented with various challenges to form groups with members from the different schools present – from NOVA FCT to ITQB NOVA, via NOVA FCSH and NOVA School of Law – and at the end, they would come up with an idea for a collaborative project that they could apply for funding.
"Think about the areas where your knowledge can contribute to the creation of innovation and link this to the challenges we have been given," summarised the person in charge, pointing to the provocative phrases on the walls of the laboratory.
Organised by NOVA's Research and Innovation Support Department, the workshop, led by Professor Guilherme Victorino and his team from NOVA's Innovation & Analytics Lab, was attended by 16 researchers, as well as members of Galp, the Partner company of the NIRC in sustainable energy systems. In the end, 4 teams were formed and started preparing their applications with very inspiring projects.
A third workshop is planned for the end of February (date to be confirmed). The calls for proposals from the interdisciplinary research community will be available soon, along with all supporting documentation.
To find out more about this community, please visit our website!
