NAU Platform wins ISCTE Public Policy Award 2022

The NAU Platform won the ISCTE Public Policy Award 2022 in the Central Public Administration category. NAU is a service provided by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through its FCCN Unit, to improve the lives of citizens by providing free online courses open to the public in different areas of knowledge. The distinction now granted recognizes the role that this platform, a pioneer at a national level, has played for three years in online teaching and training.

The 2022 edition of the award promoted by IPPS-ISCTE had the motto “The State improving our lives” and aims to highlight the most relevant public policies adopted in Portugal. The NAU Platform was recognized by the jury, composed of experts in Public Policies, in criteria such as effectiveness of results, quality, innovation and transferability. The award ceremony took place this Tuesday, November 29, at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, and was presented to António Bob Santos, Member of the Board of Directors of FCT.

Francisco Santos, Vice-President of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), states that “this award recognizes the quality of the service that NAU provides to the population and the differentiated impact it has on the lives of those who invest in lifelong learning. It is a free service that currently reaches more than 190,000 active users and has the capacity to have more than 100,000 students every day. The goal now is to increase the offer and continue to be an added value for partner entities and, above all, for citizens.”
The NAU platform, launched in 2019, seeks to encourage retraining, lifelong learning and personal development of citizens, while contributing significantly to the promotion of the Portuguese language as a vehicle for transmitting knowledge. In an online context and through a set of shared digital services, which aim to support the development of education and science in Portugal, NAU has more than 190 thousand active users and more than 400 thousand registrations in the approximately 320 editions of courses already made available.

Currently, open access courses are available in partnership with 44 national reference entities. The initial funding for the NAU project, from the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and the Community Operational Programme COMPETE 2020, under the Portugal 2020 Framework, with project number 02/SAMA2020/2016, was reinforced with funding from the European Social Fund under the Competitiveness and Internationalisation Programme for the implementation of the FAN – NAU Advanced Tools project, with project number POCI-05-5762-FSE-000266.