In 2023, NOVA University Lisbon launched the Research Impact Narratives Challenge, inviting professors and researchers affiliated to any of the university's academic units to translate the impact of their research projects into narratives.
Considering that it is imperative that society at large understands and appreciates the results of research activities, and that innovation funding agencies at both national and European level are placing increasing emphasis on measuring the impact of projects under development, the Research Impact Narratives Challenge was the format chosen to enable NOVA researchers to do so.
The winners were announced at the NOVA Science and Innovation Day, and the 6 winning projects come from a wide range of research areas:
Catarina Barreira, from the NOVA FCSH Institute of Medieval Studies, presented a reflection on the liturgical books produced at the Alcobaça Monastery. The project, which will provide new insights into the history, relationships and changes in the rituals of one of the first Cistercian monastic foundations built in Portugal, aims to contribute to the creation of training courses for tourist guides and the improvement of guided tours of the monastery.
Luís Crespo de Andrade, researcher at the NOVA FCSH Humanities Centre (CHAM), presented an analysis of the Revista Ideias e Culturas (RIC) portal, which provides universal and indexed access to influential magazines from the 20th century. The RIC has more than 100,000 users and was awarded last year in the Ler+ Awards, as proof of its importance in promoting modern cultural heritage and humanities research.
Maria de Lurdes Rosa, also a professor at the Institute of Medieval Studies at NOVA FCSH, submitted the project "Family Archives, Community Archives", in which she pointed out that, contrary to the situation in most European countries, family archives in Portugal are poorly described and studied. Considering that history suffers from this absence, the work has had an immediate impact on the availability of valuable archives that were previously unknown - and has even taken on an international dimension, winning a grant from the European Research Council.
Mauro Castelli, researcher at the NOVA Information Management School, was the author of the paper "An Artificial Intelligence (AI) system for detecting and preventing online gambling addiction". It is an AI-based system developed to identify common behavioural patterns among Portuguese online gamblers, highlighting actions that may pose a risk to the user.
Miguel de Castro Neto, currently director of the NOVA Information Management School, presented a work developed by the NOVA Cidade laboratory. Called Smart Region, it is a territorial analysis platform that aims to change the paradigm of data-based public policies. Using data science and geographic information systems, it tells how the inter-municipal community of the West is already enjoying the benefits of being a Smart Region.
Tatiana Morais, from the Centre for Research & Development on Law and Society (CEDIS) at the NOVA School of Law, is the author of "Contributing to the improvement of the legal framework for Sexual and Gender Violence in Portugal", which focuses on the introduction of legislation in the Portuguese Labour Code to combat sexual harassment in the workplace through the adoption of a code of conduct - with a consequent redefinition of what constitutes a crime in this context, and shows the positive impact on survivors of sexual harassment and rape.
The papers are all published in detail in the magazine NOVA Science 2023, which you can read here.
