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Activity Funded

Research Center in Natural Resources, Environment and Society

Centro de Estudos de Recursos Naturais, Ambiente e Sociedade - CERNAS

Reference
UIDB/00681/2020
Project Start Date
2020-01-01
Project End Date
2024-12-31
Principal Investigator
Scientific Area
Agricultural sciences
Funding Program
Concurso de avaliação no âmbito do Programa Plurianual de Financiamento de Unidades de I&D (2017/2018) - Financiamento Base

Abstract

10.2 Summary in English for general dissemination purposes It is self-evident the uniqueness and vulnerability of the Portuguese Centro Region and the need for knowledge innovative solutions to mitigate and adapt to global change impacts, and the extreme fragility in face of climate change. In the pursuit of welfare andsustainable development, a major effort has to be made in scientific excellence and on its role promoting innovation, competitiveness, resilience and income. CERNAS has a regional mission, as the sole research and development unit based at the Portuguese Centro Region it will developed a vision and a strategy, rooted in the region’s characteristics, with particular emphasis on problems that might hamper development. The vulnerability and extreme diversity conditions are the main constraints, and the reversion of these constraints frames CERNAS strategy for the 2018-2022 period. CERNAS is structured in three research groups (RG): i) forest, agriculture and livestock breeding productivity, are assembled in the Agriculture Science RG; ii) questions related with the increase of food products value and the development of novel products and processes will be addressed by the Food Science and Engineering RG; iii) rural development, ecosystem conservation, environmental services, eco-efficiency tools and solutions and the judicious use of natural resources, including land use planning and the measurement of the societal response, will be addressed by the Environment and Society RG. To maximize impact, and tackle real problems, of interdisciplinary nature, CERNAS will set in place three thematic transversal strands to provide integrated responses to the problems the region and its key actors face, aiming at a more judicious use of resources and by promoting productivity and innovation based competitiveness: (a) Improving productive systems and increase the added value of products and services, whose main objectives are to develop new biotechnology approaches and solution to increase yields, value endogenous plant species and animal breeds. (b) Enhance environmental services and eco-efficiency, aimed at developing new strategies towards growth and competitiveness based on an eco-efficiency approach, and to gain competences in several domains connected with environmental performance. In addition, the overwhelming threat of wildfires will be addressed, aiming at the reduction of vulnerability and the valorisation of natural assets. (c) Knowledge transfer and advanced governance systems, aimed at the development of new solutions to support the productive fabric that in the region is mainly composed by SMEs. In this effort CERNAS will collaborate with its interface organizations (CATAA, CBPBI, CIZ, IEBR-IN, INOVCLUSTER, OVISLAB, SISUS, VALOREN), to provide access of SMEs to research and development assets (e.g. personnel, equipment, infrastructures), promote knowledge based solutions to their problems, giving them the means to foster productivity, innovation and competitiveness. 10.3 Summary in English for evaluation CERNAS vision and strategy are focused on the challenges and needs presented by the Portuguese Centro Region, whose complexity is now self-evident. The vulnerability as a result of its climate frontier position, leads to an extreme exposure to extreme events, poses overwhelming challenge for the future. The region’s extreme diversity poses problems of scale and profitability, which imply that to become competitive, knowledge, innovation and quality have to play a major role. Based on this vision, in the pursue of research excellence and enhancing the impact it can have in sustainable development, CERNAS has redrawn its mission to pursue objectives related with the increase of productivity, increase the value of regional species, breeds, products and systems, promote ecosystem conservation, and value the environmental services they provide, bet on the development of eco-efficiency tools, and develop strategies to promote rural development by search for innovative products and services. In addition, the region needs to be reshape itself to face the overwhelming problems posed by forest fires under extreme meteorological conditions, and this has to be performed along decades with different solutions to accommodate the full regional diversity range. To further endure its mission, and increase its impact, CERNAS will make a special effort in knowledge transfer and governance, presenting an innovator approach to open the research facilities and personnel to the problems and requests posed by SMEs. CERNAS is structured in three research groups, to concentrate the expertise in three major domains: i) forest, agriculture and livestock breeding productivity, are assembled in the Agriculture Science Research Group; ii) questions related with the valuation of food products through by-product valorisation, the development of novel processes and products to improve human health will be addressed by the Food Science and Engineering Research Group; iii) rural development, ecosystem conservation, environmental services, eco-efficiency tools and solutions and the judicious use of natural resources, including land use planning and the measurement of the societal response, will be addressed by the Environment and Society Research Group. The diversity of research focus and the polarization in three research areas may hinder the capacity to tackle with the problems posed by the agro-industrial sector and the other companies working in the rural areas. For this reason, three transversal thematic strands are defined, to focus the researchers on a problem solving approach, increasing the impact of research and promote regional development through a more judicious use of resources and by promoting productivity and innovation based competitiveness: 1 - Improving productive systems and foster the added value of products, whose main objectives are to develop new biotechnology approaches and solution to increase yields, value endogenous plant species and animal breeds, including molecular assisted tools, while increasing the added value of food processing. This will be achieved through the increment of CERNAS competences in increasing food production and value through the study of functional foods and ingredients (their identification and mechanisms of action) and the protection of functional ingredients using nanotechnology. 2 – Enhance environmental services and eco-efficiency, which aims to develop new strategies towards growth and competitiveness based on an eco-efficiency approach, and to gain competences in several domains connected with environmental performance. In this context, CERNAS will sought after the development of new strategies to deal with the vulnerability to wildfires in a climate change context, the use of natural assets to develop marginal and mountain areas, the development of eco-efficiency tools to improve the competitiveness of regional value chains through a more judicious use of [renewable] raw materials and energy management and the development of participatory strategies to improve the management of natural systems aiming at a better conservation and improving the usage of environmental services. 3 - Knowledge transfer and advanced governance systems are key to increase impact. The aim is to build a smart network with active SMEs involvement to optimize the construction of new relevant knowledge and improve knowledge dissemination. Attention will be given to the interface with the productive fabric, by fostering new forms of collaboration between the enterprises, the interface organizations (INOVCLUSTER, CATAA, IEBR-IN, CIZ, CBPBI, SISUS, VALOREN, OVISLAB), through join research and development strategic projects, or focusing on the solution to key entrepreneurial problems. CERNAS aims to optimize the access and use of existing research and development assets (e.g. personnel, equipment, infrastructures), to maximize research and knowledge impact on SMEs competitiveness and overall affluence. The proposed approach is expected to boost the scientific and technological level of SMEs, providing the means to the blossom of Start-ups and Spin-off companies, scientific and technological based, and therefore, increase income, competitiveness and overall sustainability and quality of life. A key dimension of CERNAS action plan for 2018-2022, to increase its overall impact is to find new solutions to interact with SMEs, granting them an improved access to research assets. This will increase yields and values, which will promote competitiveness, economic growth, and skilled employment. To face the prohibition to deliver PhDs, CERNAS has deployed a strategy to overcome the problem and guarantee the preparation and maintenance of high performance professionals capable of thinking and acting over the territory and the productive fabric to create value and quality of life and, at the long run, to capture funds for research and promote the sustainability and resilience of regional communities.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Centro de Investigação de Recursos Naturais Ambiente e Sociedade (CERNAS)
  • Universidade Politécnica de Coimbra (IPC)

Other Institutions

  • Universidade Politécnica de Viseu (IPV)
  • Universidade Politécnica de Castelo Branco (UPCB)

Funding 909.375,00 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

909.375,00 €