NOVA Lancaster for Sustainability
Strategic partnership between Lancaster University and Universidade NOVA de Lisboa
About the partnership
The strategic partnership between NOVA University Lisbon and Lancaster University was formally established in June 2018, when the two institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Lisbon
This partnership explores opportunities for collaborative research, joint teaching initiatives and strategic knowledge exchange, staff development and student recruitment. Under this agreement, all faculties, departments, centres and units of the two partner institutions are able to explore potential areas for collaboration that will be of mutual benefit.
NOVA Lancaster for Sustainability invites both communities to join this virtual space for collaboration. Under each theme, a set of regular events are organized every year. An opportunity to discuss ongoing collaborative research, explore funding opportunities and promote joint teaching initiatives that both ecosystems offer to their faculty.
Lancaster has historic ties to Portugal. In 1986, the President of Portugal, Mário Soares, received an Honorary Doctorate from Lancaster University. The occasion served to celebrate 600 years of the Treaty of Windsor between England and Portugal, the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in existence. Close to 200 students from Portugal are currently pursuing degrees at Lancaster.
General Contacts:
NOVA: João Loureiro Rodrigues
LU: Anyka Webb
Key themes of collaboration
This partnership is structured around a mutual concern around global challenges, and under the branding NOVA Lancaster for Sustainability, three main drivers of action have been defined:
- Global Health
- Digital Transformation
- Sustainability
Each collaboration theme is coordinated by faculty from both institutions, the NOVA-Lancaster Champions. They develop the annual agenda and engage both communities in a series of research events and other joint initiatives.
Key themes of collaboration Accordion accordion
Good Health and Wellbeing is the United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal and one strategic pillar of the partnership. It brings together researchers across several disciplines, from the health sciences (e.g., NOVA Medical School, National School of Public Health, Lancaster’s Faculty of Health and Medicine) to the social sciences (e.g., NOVA Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and Lancaster’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences). Our Faculties are research intensive and pride themselves on their engagement with their respective national health sectors.
“Ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Currently, the world is facing a global health crisis unlike any other — COVID-19 is spreading human suffering, destabilizing the global economy and upending the lives of billions of people around the globe.” UN, 2021.
For more information about this theme, please contact Professor Céu Mateus (Lancaster) or Dr Judite Gonçalves (NOVA)
Developments in the use of digital technologies are transforming the ways we live and work, though of course not at an equal pace or level of access. Opportunities and threats are emerging all the time: Transformation of business models and geopolitics; creation and management of vast amounts of data; design of new cultural experiences and artefacts. This theme brings together Lancaster and NOVA’s expertise in the areas of digital humanities, information management and security, human-computer interaction, corpus linguistics, and data science among others.
For more information about this theme, please contact Professor Rute Costa (NOVA FCSH) or Professor Patrick Rebuschat (Lancaster).
To be updated
For more information about this theme, please contact Professor Isabel Abreu (NOVA ITQB).
In the words of NOVA's Rector and Vice Rector
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa's Rector João Sàágua and Vice Rector João Amaro de Matos visited Lancaster University in January 2020. They had this to say about the partnership between the two ambitious and global institutions.
"A relationship built on bottom up collaboration"
Since it was established, the partnership has promoted collaborative research among some faculty members of both institutions. While several research conferences played an important role to foster a collective agenda, parallel meetings took place, fine tuning the extent of this partnership. A full archive of activity since the signing of the MOU can be accessed via the link below.
The Partnership Since 2018NOVA University Lisbon
NOVA University Lisbon delivers internationally recognized research and quality teaching that ensures high levels of professional success to its students. Founded in 1973, NOVA is the youngest public university in the Lisbon metropolitan area, with teaching units in Lisbon, Almada, Oeiras, and soon in Cascais. Its nine academic units constitute an incontestable cultural, artistic, academic and technological resource.
Visit NOVA University Lisbon WebsiteHow to stay in touch
To contact us please email nova@lancaster.ac.uk
If you would like to subscribe to our mailing list, please follow the instructions below.
Mailing List accordion
Please email nova@lancaster.ac.uk with the subject line “Subscribe to Nova mailing list“. We aim to process your request within 48 hours.
If you are a member of Lancaster University, the process is slightly faster, as you can be added automatically. Please find the instructions below.
How to subscribe to the Nova mailing list:
If you have a Lancaster email address: you can manage your list subscriptions online
Log in to the Nova LU Mailing Lists (Please make sure you turn on the VPN.)
Click “join”
A welcome message will appear in the browser window. Then, click “Continue”. You will now be subscribed to the list.
Upcoming NOVA Lancaster Events
Since 2018, three themes have emerged as being particularly relevant to the partnership – global health, sustainability, and digital transformations. Directed by these three themes, NOVA and Lancaster regularly co-organise events to continue growing our community of researchers. Our events are open to anyone with an interest in a specific theme or the partnership in general. To keep informed of partnership news and activities please sign up to the mailing list.
We are currently planning several events for 2021/2022. We will list upcoming events in this section and publicise them via our NOVA Lancaster mailing list.
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