IPB: Role in the project

The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança

The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) is a public institution of Higher Education, founded in 1983, whose mission is to deliver a quality higher education, to promote Research and Technological Development, particularly in cooperation with the business community, and to contribute to the development of the Country and the Region, by providing technical, technological, and scientific competences to the society in general.

It has an internationalization programme with widely recognized success, including the annual mobility of more than 900 incoming and outgoing students and 300 teaching staff members. Nowadays the IPB is a multicultural institution where 30% of its students are international students from all over the World. IPB is also recognized by its performance in applied research and regional engagement. The relevance and impact of IPB’s activities is reflected in the top positions it occupies in international rankings such as SIR (http://www.scimagoir.com/), U-Multirank (www.u-multirank.eu) and Shanghai (http://www.shanghairanking.com/). The maximum scores obtained in several parameters of these indicators are the result of IPB’s accumulated and proven experience, namely in the impact and excellence of its scientific production and applied research, in the international student mobility and in the involvement with its Region. IPB develops an important Scientific Research and Technological Development activity, featuring five research units integrated in the network of the FCT research centres.

The Mountain Research Centre

The Mountain Research Centre (CIMO)  is a National FCT R&D unit of excellence that conducts research on Mediterranean mountain systems following an interdisciplinary strategy to go from Nature (raw materials, natural resources, biodiversity, agriculture, forest management) to Products (Food and Bio-based materials). CIMO applies a holistic and interdisciplinary research approach, integrating natural, social, and engineering sciences to promote sustainable development using endogenous resources and creation of value chains. CIMO aims to promote scientific and technological development and their transformation into global opportunities to socioeconomically reinforce mountain ecosystems taking advantage of a successful experience and a consolidated national/international leadership. CIMO is organized in 2 groups and subdivided into 4 topics towards sustainable development of mountain regions Socio-Ecological resilience; Sustainable agriculture and innovative agro-food chains; Processes and products engineering; and Natural and bio-based ingredients. CIMO Facilities include Labs in Food Technology, Chemical Engineering, Microbiology, Ecology, Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Soils; Experimental Farms; and pilot scale labs at Brigantia EcoPark. The Centre has currently 162 members, which comprises 78 PhD integrated members, 53 integrated PhD students, 18 Project Grant researchers and 13 collaborators.