Draft Regulations for Awarding the Title of Collaborative Laboratory (CoLAB) available on the FCT website

The Draft Regulations for Awarding the Title of Collaborative Laboratory (CoLAB) are available on the FCT website. The draft will be up for public consultation for 30 days after publication in the Diário da República, which should be soon. Comments can be sent to CoLAB@fct.pt.

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

The main objective of the Collaborative Laboratories is to define and implement research and innovation agendas aimed at creating economic and social value, including processes for internationalizing national scientific and technological capacity in relevant areas of intervention, stimulating scientific employment and carrying out R&D activities that enhance 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 to which Collaborative Laboratories must respond is the effective densification of the national territory in terms of knowledge-based activities, through the 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. The Collaborative Laboratories should therefore consolidate and promote the capacity and potential of the scientific and academic communities to face up to the opportunity of linking knowledge with well-being and social and economic development in Portugal.