2024 has been a year in which we can confidently say that Freedom – and all that it symbolises – has made its mark here.
First, we celebrated April by covering a wall with carnations. Then we commemorated another historical milestone linked to the date that marked the beginning of democracy in Portugal and which has a connection with NOVA: the departure point of the 5th Infantry Battalion. In other words, it was from Colégio Almada Negreiros, located on the Campolide campus, that the march began in the early hours of 1974 towards the facilities of Rádio Clube Português, where the first broadcast of the Armed Forces Movement was made. We also reflected, in another exercise of remembrance, on the day when NOVA congratulated the National Salvation Board on the “general guidelines of the service it proposed to render to the country”.
Still in the spirit of April, we joined the United Nations Initiative for the Sustainability of Higher Education. Embodying the vision of a civic and global university, we travelled to Japan with a strong delegation – the Rector and three Vice-rectors! – to promote education, science and international cooperation.
It’s also worth mentioning that, just before that eventful month of April, even Marcelo, the President of the Republic, visited our stand at Futurália, the largest education and training event in Portugal.
In full spring, we reaffirmed our commitment to peace by suspending further cooperation partnerships with Israel, and shortly afterwards we hosted the opening of the international conference “Paving the Way to the Pact of the Future”, emphasising that “our ambition is to be among the pioneers” in terms of the SDGs.
It was also during this period that health received a unique monthly spotlight on our channels with the launch of NOVA Health Talks, published on the last Thursday of each month. Earlier in the year we also launched a programme dedicated to the mental health of our students.
With the arrival of longer days, we supported NOVA students competing in Formula Student with the car that has welcomed visitors to the NOVA Science and Innovation Day for the past two years.
We then welcomed the summer with a very special school involving students from partner universities in the EUTOPIA Alliance. Around the same time, we launched the most comprehensive training programme in tourism.
During the holidays, we felt immense pride when one of our students stood on the podium at the Olympic Games. We are referring, of course, to Patrícia Sampaio and the bronze medal she won.
The last quarter of the year was equally intense, starting with the confirmation that NOVA is one of the Portuguese universities with the highest number of European patent applications over the last 20 years. But that’s not all.
We participated in COP 29 – the UN Climate Change Conference – as the only Portuguese university to host an event in the Portuguese pavilion, highlighting the importance of putting climate action at the top of the university agenda.
We officially celebrated the University’s talent in research and innovation and launched ‘Net 1/4’, an innovative project to address the housing crisis facing university students in Portugal by promoting affordable student accommodation.
We reaffirm, as always, that universities must lead by example – as seen in the various ongoing projects presented at the NOVA Sustainability Days – and that this should be replicated in the most diverse areas of society: hence we have launched a whole month-long programme dedicated to inclusion and diversity, declaring that “we cannot continue to normalise violence against women“.
Now, in a more festive tone, it’s worth remembering that we dedicated NOVA Day to the theme “Inspire and Build”, awarding the title of Professor Emeritus to António Marques, António Rendas, and Manuel Vilares. We also recognised the most innovative teaching projects at the university and highlighted the centenary of Mário Soares’ birth, our Honorary Doctor since 1996.
Looking to the future, we can proudly say that we remain focused on preparing for upcoming pandemics – especially since, at the start of the year, NOVA secured €8 million to support that fight. This came shortly before we shared the experience of one of our spin-offs – CellmAbs – which achieved the unprecedented feat of securing the largest technology transfer agreement ever made by a Portuguese company in the fields of biotechnology and life sciences.
With such achievements and so much more to discover on our website, we are more than optimistic about the year ahead, filled with reasons to declare that, following these “Season’s Greetings,” there can only be… a wonderful 2025!