CEIS20 has created spaces for debate, dialogue and reflection – CEIS20 Time for Reflection and Projectorium – in order to continuously improve the processes of research and scientific investigation and to promote new practices, themes and creative solutions. The Young Researchers Meeting should also be viewed in this context.
At the same time, the coordinators, lines, groups and the Editorial Board meet quarterly to promote opportunities to discuss and evaluate the research dynamics of the Centre, as well as the objectives, needs and organisation of various scientific events.
CEIS20 Time for Reflection
An annual meeting for strategic and scientific reflection, promoting constructive and open discussions and dialogues, constantly seeking to strengthen CEIS20 as a community and entity of research and investigation dedicated to knowledge and society. To this end, it is essential to develop a collegial dynamic appropriate to a research unit such as CEIS20, which promotes scientific innovation and stimulates interdisciplinary debates.
It provides the right time to take stock of the work done, to impart critical and constructive views on new ideas and practices, and to set research priorities that will take conceptual reflection to a deeper level of analysis, enabling the emergence of new scientific enquiries. This event provides time to reflect on CEIS20 and consists of the presentation of the main lines of action of the Centre’s Scientific Coordination, of the various groups and clusters, and of the thematic lines and research axes. It is a moment of exchange and retrospective and prospective analysis, where future joint short- and long-term strategies are defined, with the participation of the External Scientific Monitoring Committee.
The first CEIS20 Time for Reflection events were held on 6 January 2018 and on 9 March 2019, with dozens of researchers attending to discuss, among other things, the CEIS20 Strategic Project for the 2018-2022 five-year period.
Projetorium: Research in Perspective
The relationship between science management and research has not been an easy one. In a special issue on science management published in 2021, the journal “Nature” highlighted the tensions that exist: in some universities and research centres, the scientific community has taken the lead in seeing management as a support structure for research, entirely dependent on the will and leadership of researchers. Leaders of other R&D organisations expected managers to monitor the scientific output of researchers, particularly in terms of publications and the ability to attract competitive funding – creating an environment of enormous pressure for all. Science management has now become an ally of research, identifying relevant calls for proposals and potential partners, ensuring compliance with the necessary requirements, guiding the completion of forms and the application of resources, and promoting socially responsible research.
A project, whatever its application, has three variables: scope, time and budget. A research project is different in that two of these variables - time and budget – are determined by funding bodies. Given these constraints, is it possible to present innovative, successful and high quality applications? According to Gómez-Marín et al (2022), the secret lies in a perfect combination of resources (human, material, institutional, etc.), experience and planning.
In an attempt to help the CEIS20 scientific community find this perfect match, we propose a cycle of initiatives based on the previous experience of “Projects in Dialogue”, which we have called “Projectorium – Research in Perspective”, – a space that aims to be a laboratory for successful projects. It will be a space for sharing, exchanging and peer reviewing emerging project ideas and for seeking internal partnerships. The Projectorium will also be a space for early (as well as ongoing and gradual) support for national and European individual and team applications. With this initiative, we want to involve the whole of the CEIS20 research community, including PhD students and researchers at the early stages of their careers. In order to extend our reach beyond the UC and to promote the internationalisation of the Centre’s activities, we will organise events aimed at researchers from outside CEIS20 who wish to be hosted here. To promote mentoring and knowledge sharing, we will invite both our successful internal candidates and institutional experts from DAPI and III-UC. In a series of sessions in different formats – from workshops to orientation sessions – we will cover specific topics related to specific applications and competitions (e.g. how to write a career plan; how to calculate number of persons/months) as well as cross-cutting and comprehensive topics for all scientific activities (e.g. how to manage time; how to identify journals to publish in; how to record activities in Ciência Vitae, etc.). Let’s pool our resources, experience and planning to ensure success, innovation and quality.
2024 | Sessão de Orientação na Preparação de Orçamentos para Projetos FCT
Young Researchers Meeting
An interdisciplinary open meeting for the presentation and discussion of dissertations by PhD candidates. Eight meetings have already been organised by the Centre.
Its main purpose is to give the junior researchers at CEIS20 the opportunity to share and disclose their scientific production.
It aims to provide a forum for the exchange and discussion of research carried out by the CEIS20 junior researchers, which may be at an early stage, under development or even completed, and which always relates to one of the main areas of the Centre’s scientific scope. Priority is given to interdisciplinary research focusing on the analysis of the state of the art or on the presentation and discussion of relevant working methods or innovative information. A collective book is always published containing the papers presented at the meeting.