Draft Regulation for the Attribution of the Collaborative Laboratory Title (CoLAB)

The Draft Regulation for the Attribution of the Title of Collaborative Laboratory (CoLAB) is open for public consultation until April 18th. The Consultation Notice was published today in the Official Gazette of the Union, and begins the formal counting of deadlines. Comments can be sent to CoLAB@fct.pt .

Collaborative Laboratories are associations or consortia of research units, Associate Laboratories , higher education institutions, intermediary and interface institutions, technology centers, companies, business associations and other relevant partners in the productive, social or cultural fabric, such as State Laboratories, local authorities and institutions associated with local organizations, hospital units, museums, archives, or social institutions, national or international (participating entities).

The main objective of Collaborative Laboratories is to define and implement research and innovation agendas aimed at creating economic and social value, including processes of internationalization of national scientific and technological capacity, in relevant areas of intervention, stimulating scientific employment and carrying out R&D activities that enhance the reinforcement of synergies with higher education institutions, namely within the scope of specialized, professional or advanced training programs in close collaboration with social and economic partners.

The main challenge that Collaborative Laboratories must respond to is the effective densification of the national territory in terms of knowledge-based activities, through a growing institutionalization of forms of collaboration between science, technology and higher education institutions and the economic and social fabric, namely companies, the hospital and health system, cultural institutions and social organizations. Collaborative Laboratories must therefore consolidate and promote the capacity and potential that scientific and academic communities present to face the opportunity of relating knowledge to well-being and social and economic development in Portugal.