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CoLAB: Evaluation Panel meets February 18

The next meeting of the Collaborative Laboratory Title and Designation (CoLAB) Application Evaluation Panel is scheduled for February 18 and 19. At that meeting, applications submitted by January 15, 2019 will be evaluated. The public presentation of the proposals will take place on February 18. For this evaluation exercise, a new Application Submission Guide has been published.

The process of creating CoLABs began in 2017. It is a Call open on an ongoing basis, with regular meetings of the jury to evaluate the applications submitted. Two evaluation exercises have been held so far, in which 21 CoLAB titles were awarded out of 30 submitted applications.

The goal of the Collaborative Laboratories is to bridge the gap between academia and business, directing skilled employment to a productive market that will boost the Portuguese economy. The CoLABs will be funded by the regional operational programs, in a total amount of about 50 million euros for the next 3 years. FCT will add 10 million euros to the funding, corresponding to 20%, for expenses that do not result from hiring human resources.

The CoLABs will generate about 750 direct jobs, spread over several regions of the country. It is expected that 3 to 4 times more indirect jobs will be created, through the needs of other companies and institutions that will join the collaborative laboratories to produce the products and services to be marketed nationally and internationally.

Collaborative Laboratories are associations or consortia established between research institutions, private companies and civil society organizations. The consortia are composed of research units, Associate Laboratories, higher education institutions, intermediate and interface institutions, technology centers, companies, business associations and other relevant partners of the productive, social or cultural fabric, such as State Laboratories, municipalities and institutions associated with local organizations, hospital units, museums, archives, or social institutions, national or international (participating entities).