The growth and success of higher education, and of the training it provides, are inseparable from research, development, innovation and artistic creation. At present, a significant number of Polytechnic University of Lisbon lecturers are integrated into research units within the university system. This creates a degree of external dispersion, which can make it more difficult to build stable teams and maintain continuous lines of research in projects aligned with the strategic goals of the Schools and with the affirmation of Polytechnic University of Lisbon’s own place within the national scientific system.
Despite the current limitations on the internal development of these activities, largely due to the constraints imposed by the legislation governing the polytechnic subsystem, the quality of the work carried out by Polytechnic University of Lisbon lecturers and their commitment have made it possible to achieve remarkable results in recent years. These results can be seen, for example, in the number of projects, publications, citations, scientific reviews, thesis supervision and dissertations, which must continue to be supported and developed in the future.
The policies already in place from support for project acquisition, to internal calls, editorial initiatives and the awarding of research prizes should therefore be maintained and consolidated. At the same time, deepening this work will require new measures.
There is a clear vision: Polytechnic University of Lisbon must strengthen its position as an institution that produces new knowledge through high-quality research. This dimension of its mission can only be fully achieved when it has the conditions to offer doctoral programmes.