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Activity Funded

Instituto Dom Luiz

Instituto Dom Luiz

Reference
UIDB/50019/2020
Project Start Date
2020-01-01
Project End Date
2024-12-31
Principal Investigator
Scientific Area
Exact 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 Established in 1853 as the first Portuguese Meteorological and Geophysical Observatory, IDL is an integrated Earth System Institute, with research in Solid Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric processes, their interactions, and their relevance for a sustainable society. IDL researchers apply methods from Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Engineering, to contribute to a better understanding of the Earth dynamics and environment, from geological to human timescales. The IDL team, with researchers in 6 Portuguese Universities, is organized in five closely interacting research groups, focusing on different Earth-System interactions, but contributing to a common program of research. The group uses field, laboratory and theoretical tools, including conceptual, analogue and numerical models, to pursue its objectives, in close connection with a wide network of international collaborations. Research developed at IDL benefits from privileged access to the Southwest Europe and the Atlantic natural laboratory, a geologically active region, a recognized hot spot for climate change, and a relevant holder of key mineral and renewable energy resources. Science developed from that research is contributing to address world class problems, at the core of some pressing societal concerns. Climate Change, Natural Resources and Hazards, and the issues of Sustainability, are at the centre of that research program. 10.3 Summary in English for evaluation IDL's core mission is to investigate the processes that shape our planet and the environment, aiming to unravel our planet's dynamics, and to develop know-how useful to respond to critical societal challenges. Such objectives are addressed by a team that covers a wide range of Earth and Environmental Sciences, dealing with atmospheric, oceanic, and solid Earth processes, their interactions, and their impacts on different time scales. Established in 1853 as the first Portuguese Earth Science Observatory, and in continuous operation thereafter, IDL is now organized in five closely interacting research groups, focusing on different Earth-System interactions, but contributing to a common program of research. Climate Change, Natural Resources and Hazards, and the issues of Sustainability, are at the center of that program. Research developed at IDL aims to address world class science problems, building on IDL privileged access to the Southwest Europe and the Atlantic natural laboratory, a geologically active region, a recognized hot spot for climate change, and a relevant holder of key mineral and renewable energy resources. In the next decade, the IDL team aims to reach a leading position in its core activities, where it is already recognized as a key contributor. Besides the focus on the SW Europe natural laboratory, IDL has been increasingly involved in other regions with a strong historical link, e.g. Brazil and Africa. IDL applies an Earth-System perspective to geoscience research, based on field, laboratory observations and modelling, seeking to understand, model and predict the evolution of planet Earth. In the next decade, IDL proposes to address the two following main challenges. IDL is developing the next generation of environmental prediction systems, relevant to weather, climate, and environmental hazard models. Key developments are expected in areas of IDL's expertise such as surface processes, convection permitting modeling, synoptic climatology, and the incorporation of new remote sensing data. New approaches, based on global and regional Earth-System models, for drought, heat waves, and wildfire interactions, and for the eastern boundary coastal circulation regimes, will lead to breakthrough results concerning the dynamics in the subtropics. Such methodologies will have a strong impact on the sustainable use of resources and on hazard management in coastal regions. IDL aims to go beyond classic plate tectonics, addressing the dynamics of the 3D heterogeneous mantle and crust with new high-resolution data and numerical models. This approach will provide new insights on poorly understood problems such as convection in a heterogeneous mantle, intra-plate seismicity and in diffuse plate boundaries, and subduction initiation. In addition, IDL aims to develop an innovative geochemical parameterization usable in geodynamical models, making these relevant for the explanation of crustal heterogeneity and mineral resource distribution. Climate change is as a major societal problem to be addressed in the next decades. IDL aims to maintain a leading role in the widest range of climate change studies, from paleo-climate to impacts of current climate variability and high resolution climate change scenarios. Such an ambitious program is made possible by the consolidation of IDL as a large and well organized research institute, now with 113 members and 70 PhD students, anchored at the University of Lisbon, which hosts about 800 under to post-graduate students in Earth and Environmental Sciences. In that context, IDL has established a coherent set of laboratory, field and computing facilities, which offer its researchers the possibility of addressing a wide range of scientific and technological problems, and contribute to the advanced training of young researchers. IDL researchers and students also benefit from the access to external research facilities at state laboratories, such as IPMA and IH, and in international networks, including EPOS, EMSO, Windscanner, ECMWF, and CORDEX. A critical component of that program is IDL's contribution to two well established PhD schools: EARTHSYSTEMS, incorporating students enrolled in PhDs in Geophysics, Geology and Marine Sciences at the University of Lisbon, and SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS, a joint Lisbon/Coimbra/Porto/MIT program. An important outcome of our activities is an already strong outreach agenda, addressing pre-university students, and the public at large, in topics of high potential impact. IDL is committed to contribute to the career progress of its young researchers, by promoting international mobility within its networks, and by capturing research funds from national and international funding systems, and from the industry. IDL researchers are motivated to concentrate efforts in the co-funding of research positions from different sources, reinforcing intra and inter-group collaborations. While some of IDL research will always be curiosity driven, addressing theoretical and other fundamental science questions, much of IDL activities are clearly relevant for 2030 United Nations objectives, in areas concerning Climate Change, Hazards and the Sustainability of the human society in the XXI century, with an increased demand for Earth Resources and Energy, and an ever stronger vulnerability to major environmental hazards. Funding from the present call is critical to secure a sustainable flow of talented researchers, and to make a step change in IDL computing and observational capabilities, leading to new knowledge strengthening IDL international stance, and potentiating IDL's ability to capture a larger fraction of European and private funding, within the teams reach, but requiring an internationally competitive and well supported research team.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Dom Luiz (UL IGIDL)
  • Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências (FCUL)

Other Institutions

  • FCiênciasID Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências (Fciências.ID)
  • Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (IPL ISEL)
  • Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI)
  • Universidade de Coimbra (UC)
  • Agência Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação Tecnologia e Inovação (ARDITI)

Funding 2.138.500,00 €

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

2.138.500,00 €