Coordinator

WHO ARE WE?

University of Porto (UPorto) is Portugal’s second largest university and one of the most prestigious teaching and research institutions in the country. It has around 1600 non-teaching staff, over 31.000 students (around 1500 from foreign countries) and 2300 full-time academic staff, two thirds of which are post-graduates. This high qualification level of the teaching staff, combined with advanced lab technology and equipment, as well as the close connections with the business world ensure first-class training, which is fully recognized by the labour market. As the biggest producer of science in Portugal, with 14 faculties and one business school along with 16 libraries and 14 museums distributed over 3 campuses, UPorto provides an exceptional variety of courses (over 600 training programs per year) covering the whole range of study areas and all levels of higher education, from degrees to lifelong education courses.
Currently, UPorto hosts over 50 research centres (9 of them are state associated labs) covering a wide range of areas, from the humanities to sciences and technologies, and 6 competence centers in the fields of cybersecurity, ageing, biomechanics, media, ocean and materials research. Evaluated by international panels of independent experts in assessments by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, more than a half of these research units have been awarded as “Excellent” and “Very Good”. Many of these centres are used as interfaces for institutions, bringing the University together, as a main partner, along with other organisations representing external interests. Assuming itself as a Research University, UPorto is responsible for over 20% of the Portuguese scientific papers indexed each year in the ISI – Web of Science (ISI-WoS).
In the last years, UPorto has been putting large efforts in providing greater economic value to its scientific production and partnerships with industry leaders have already resulted in several innovations with proven success in the national and international sphere. University of Porto Science and Technology Park (UPTEC) has been playing a very important role in this matter. UPTEC has been supporting knowledge and technology transfer between academia and industry since 2007, by incubating start-up companies and hosting business innovation centres. In recognition of its outstanding performance on bringing academic knowledge and business closer together, through its strategy of sharing research findings and fostering local entrepreneurship, UPTEC was the European Commission’s REGIO STARS 2013 – Smart Growth Award winner.
The Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP) is one of its oldest and largest schools and has been providing high-quality training in exact and natural sciences. Over the years it has been incorporating other fields of studies, such as Geographical Engineering, Astronomy, Computer Science and Information Technology, Biochemistry, Landscape Architecture, Environmental and Agricultural Sciences. FCUP currently hosts six academic departments and eight high-performing Research and Development Units, including GreenUPorto. Offering more than 70 teaching programs, FCUP has a highly-qualified teaching and research staff responsible for providing a high-quality education, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Faculty of Sciences has 12 H2020 projects ongoing, 7 MSCA projects including 2 ongoing individual MSC Grants. And also 4 Erasmus + ongoing projects. Regarding national projects there are 113 ongoing projects. FCUP also provides external services related to documents and handwriting examination, statistics and physics. Above all, FCUP remains committed to exploring the opportunities for cooperation and collaboration, not only inside UPorto, but also with other Portuguese and international entities. The Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto has large experience in National and International projects, namely EU projects, with several previous EU grants in FP6, FP7 and also in H2020.
GreenUPorto Research Centre is hosted by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP) which received the classification of Excellent in the last evaluation of national Research Centres made by the Foundation for Science and Technology, with the contribution of international panels of scientists. The mission of GreenUPorto, is to contribute to the scientific and technological development and to the knowledge transfer in the field of agronomy, food, and environmental sciences, promoting an innovative and sustained growth of this sector. In the context of a smart specialization, GreenUPorto is the first Portuguese Research Centre mainly focused on the horticulture value chain both in open-air production systems and under protected cultivation. The preservation of the quality of soils and of agriecosystems is also a key priority.

Ruth Pereira – GreenUPorto’s Research Centre Director