Host Institution

The University of Coimbra (UC) is a portuguese public higher education institution founded in 1290. It is organized by faculties, comprising the Faculties of Law, Medicine, Arts and Humanities, Pharmacy, Economics, Sciences and Technology, Psychology and Education Sciences, and Sport Sciences and Physical Education.

The mission of UC comprises three pillars: Education, Research and Knowledge Transfer. UC was classified as World Heritage by the UNESCO in 2013. UC has 38 centres of pure and applied research that are responsible for the production of knowledge in several scientific fields, bringing together around 1800 researchers. Concerning knowledge transfer, UC deepens the innovation policy through INOV.C, an Innovation Ecosystem that comprises more than 500 partners.

UC has a Research Management Service divided into four units: the Strategic Areas Unit, the Pre-award Research Support Service, the Post-award Project Management Service and a Technology Transfer Office – UCBusiness. These units support the implementation of the research and development strategic policies of the university, namely through the promotion of the scientific and technological capacity of the UC; the dissemination of funding opportunities; the management of applications to competitive funding; the administrative, economic and financial management of projects and activities; and the management of innovation and knowledge transfer activities.

UC presents one of the older libraries in Portugal, the Joanine Library, which has around 60.000 books from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. There is also since 2022 the Conservation and Restoration Workshop of the General Library of the UC and the Archive of the UC.

The Faculty of Sciences and Technology (FCTUC) is one of UC’s faculties, and its research activities are framed into more than 20 Research Units, which are widely recognized references in a vast number of scientific and technological fields.

The Chemical Engineering and Renewable Resources for Sustainability (CERES) research centre is organized into three main groups of research: Design of Functional Materials; Process and Environmental Engineering; and Bioresources and Applied Biosciences, focused on four thematic lines: Digital Industry; Renewable Resources and Energy; Environmental Technologies; and Biotechnology and Health. CERES has the mission of fostering scientific and technological research in the field of Chemical Engineering and in related areas, with a focus on renewable resources, with valuable contributions to the emerging problems of society based on sustainable development approaches.