Thanks to the collective effort of more than 600 researchers across our six universities, UNITA’s first Research and Innovation cartography has been established. The cartography constitutes the first step towards launching UNITA’s Research and Innovation Hubs concerning the three thematic areas of the project, namely Cultural Heritage, Circular Economy, and Renewable Energies.
Inventorying Research Activities across the Consortium
A Call of Expression of Interest (CEI) was published in January 2021 in an effort to identify research teams and activities that might integrate the consortium’s future hubs.
The online application form, edited in the five Romance languages of the consortium (Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian) and in English, was made available to all UNITA researchers from January 18th to March 15th 2021.
More than 600 answers were collected. At the end of April, this led to a first draft of the cartography where all research activities were categorized under thematic areas and sub-themes. It was then reorganized in May, and the projects were linked to the cartography. Today, all the researchers of UNITA can visualize the titles, keywords, summaries (in two languages including English) of the different projects, also the universities, departments or institutes participating.
Connecting researchers, students and professionals across Europe
The cartography is still a work-in-progress. It has been sent to all who have answered the initial CEI in order to collect feedback for possible enhancements. It will be updated regularly with new research activities and improved in order to make it more user-friendly.
Once all of the necessary adjustments are made, the cartography will be opened beyond UNITA to the whole world. The cartography is more than a simple communication device, but an online tool that will help students, researchers, and professionals, affiliated or not to UNITA, make connections and create future collaborations.
