ISCTE-IUL has two FCT collaborative laboratories, CoLABOR and Smart Farm Colab, that are integrated as partners with a duration of 5 years of activities.

The main objective of the Collaborative Laboratories promoted by FCT ‘is to create, directly and indirectly, qualified employment and scientific employment in Portugal through the implementation of research and innovation agendas aimed at the creation of economic and social value’. And which ‘should meet the challenge of the densification of the national territory (...) through a growing consolidation of forms of collaboration between institutions of science, technology and higher education and the economic and social area, namely the companies, health system, cultural institutions and social organizations’.

CoLabor

Objective | The objective of the Collaborative Laboratory for Labour, Employment and Social Protection (CoLABOR) is to produce knowledge to support the elaboration of social policies, especially in the areas of work, employment, social protection and social security and the social and solidarity economy.

Partnership | The partnership, scheduled for the next 5 years, is coordinated by Manuel Carvalho da Silva (Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra) and includes several entities: the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra; the Institute of Economic, Financial and Tax Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon; ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon; the National Confederation of Solidarity Institutions; Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, Delta Cafés Sociedade Gestora de Participações Sociais, S.A., Mota-Engil, SGPS, S.A., SONAE CENTER SERVIÇOS II, S.A., and the Office of Strategy and Planning of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security. At ISCTE-IUL, the coordination is ensured by Renato Miguel do Carmo, through the CIES-IUL research unit and the two permanent research structures it supports: Inequality Observatory and Emigration Observatory.

Actions | By mobilizing a wide range of resources, CoLABOR will seek to (a) design policy responses (public and organizational) to the problems of the areas of work, employment and social protection; (b) boost the capacity of the Public Administration, companies and organizations of the social and solidarity economy, by strengthening instruments of analysis and intervention, the anticipation of technological and socioeconomic changes and support to decision-making, at the micro level in technological reconfigurations, management and organizational modes - and at the macro level - in institutions that embrace the adoption of new technologies, labour relations, as well as those regulating social protection; (c) promote staff training and the creation of scientific employment. Planned activities include: (1) Impact assessment of technology on work and employment; (2) Evaluation of social responses; (3) Data-Labour information platform; (4) Assessment of the adequacy of social security models.

Smart Farm Colab

Objective | The collaborative laboratory Smart Farm Colab, in the area of ​​intelligent and sustainable agricultural production for vegetables, fruit and vineyards, combines a strong technological component with an important psychosocial aspect to respond to advances in production and agrarian management, but also in the articulation between training and employability.

Partnerships | This is a partnership among four higher education entities with its various Research and Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centres (ISCTE-IUL, FCT-ININOVA, UL-Faculty of Sciences and Polytechnic Institute of Leiria), the 12 municipalities comprising the West CIM (led by the municipality of Torres Vedras) and an initial set of 10 entrepreneurs from the region that will be extended during the development of Colab. The ISCTE-IUL team is coordinated by Pedro Sebastião through IT-IUL with other research units also being involved: BRU-IUL, CIES-IUL, CIS-IUL, DINÂMIA'CET-IUL and ISTAR-IUL.

Actions | Smart Farm Colab works on (i) territorial economics, with a strong technological component in the area of ​​Internet of Things (IoT), Drones (with its various sensors) and intelligent software platform to interconnect the entire process; (ii) in the agricultural sector, involving automated processes with robot tractors and also explores existing data to support decision-making in a personalized way and according to the time and geographic area in which it is operating; (iii) also exploring the different aspects of business, marketing, advertising, market research, business models, international trade and business forecasts in this area; (iv) the area of ​​integrated sociology in the project will enable the definition of educational plans / professional training / post-graduations for future players in agriculture (entrepreneurs, employees and intermediaries) and employability for the region (in collaboration with the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training and other organizations responsible for future employment); (v) the psychology of organizations will help define the profiles of the technicians and actors in this ecosystem; (vi) AUDAX-ISCTE will organize the mentoring and training courses for entrepreneurs (in order to transfer knowledge to the industry) and will also be responsible for creating, by 2023, more than 30 startups and spinoffs that appear in the context of this Colab.