Author: Joseph Bourne

Research in Asia delegation

A delegation from Lancaster University traveled to NOVA University Lisbon last month to meet with their counterparts and discuss shared research interests in Asia.

The delegation participated in the ‘Research in Asia’ event organized by NOVA University in Lisbon. The delegation included academics from Lancaster’s Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Science and Technology, Health and Medicine, the Management School, and Lancaster University Confucius Institute.

The following is taken from NOVA University’s website:

On July 23, NOVA University Lisbon organized the conference “Research in Asia”, in partnership with the Lancaster University. The conference, promoted by the NOVA In the Globe initiative, will bring together researchers from Lancaster and NOVA, from different research fields and schools, who conduct applied research focused in Asia.

Research in Asia fostered collaborations between researchers from different scientific backgrounds, enabling them to share knowledge and collaborate on large-scale research projects with ties to Asia. The event featured a session on NOVA’s capacity-building projects in Asia and two-panel discussions, “Research-driven innovation: Challenges and opportunities” and “Cultural heritage and scientific diplomacy” with both external speakers and leading researchers from NOVA and Lancaster University.

In addition to the researchers from NOVA and Lancaster, the event was attended by the Vice-Rector of NOVA, Professor Elvira Fortunato, by the President of the Portuguese-Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, João Marques da Cruz, by the President of the Camões – Institute for Cooperation and Language, Ambassador Luís Faro Ramos, by the Oriente Foundation and by Professor Robert Geyer from Lancaster University.

The full article and event photos can be found here.

The three groups identified the following areas of collaboration: ‘Sustainable solutions for rice straw’; ‘Maritime cities – past, present and future’; and, ‘Emergent compounds and genetic markers presence in urban wastewater and their impact on organisms’ resistance’.

Lancaster University and NOVA University Lisbon established a strategic partnership in June 2018. The purpose of the partnership is to explore opportunities for collaborative research, joint teaching initiatives and strategic knowledge exchange including internationalisation, staff development and student recruitment.

This is the forth Lancaster University delegation visit to Lisbon since the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding.

Dr Sapeta (holding the flowers) having successfully defended her PhD; to her left is Dr Carmo Silva and to her right is her main supervisor, Prof Margarida Oliveira.

Plant Scientist and Lecturer at the Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC), Dr Elizabete Carmo-Silva visited the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (ITQB-NOVA) in April 2019. Elizabete was one of two external examiners for the public discussion of the PhD thesis of Helena Sapeta, supervised by Professor Margarida Oliveira. PhD discussions in Portugal are very different from a PhD viva in the UK and the picture illustrates the members of the Jury with Dr Sapeta at the end of the session.

As part of the visit, Elizabete was invited to give a seminar at ITQB-NOVA on The complex regulation of the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco. Elizabete presented the research she and the Photosynthesis Research team at LEC are conducting aimed at improving the productivity of globally important crops, such as wheat, as part of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP). She discussed the complexities of Rubisco regulation and how our expanding knowledge and understanding of such complexities are essential to inform targeted approaches of crop improvement.

While at ITQB, Elizabete and collaborators Dr Isabel Abreu and PhD student Inês Matias Luís at the Proteome Regulation in Plants Laboratory of the Genomics of Plant Stress (GPlantS) research unit, met to discuss research findings and the development of future initiatives, including an upcoming meeting at Lancaster.

Professor Céu Mateus

Professor Céu Mateus, Senior Lecturer in Health Economics at Lancaster University has written an article for NOVA School of Business and Economics’ blog: ‘Future Talks’.

The article focuses on the need to recognise the potential of technology in the contribution it can make to increase health literacy. It also discusses how, with the news, one must look at the source of the content and say: no to fake news, yes to scientific evidence. Read the full article here.

Professor Mateus’ research focuses on economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals, digital technologies and services. Her work has covered a broad range of topics such as equity in access to care, hospital mergers, efficiency measurement, variations in medical practice, among others.

Professor Mateus will be attending the ‘Research in Latin America’ event at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa next month with seven other academics from various Lancaster University faculties.

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa’s Vice-Rector for Research and innovation, and Professor of Chemical Engineering, João Crespo, visited earlier this month to deliver a lecture to Lancaster’s Engineering Department on how different membrane functionalities impact on their performance. The lecture discussed how, similarly to biological membranes, synthetic membranes may be designed in order to organize the physical space, allowing for defining different “compartments” and regulating the transport of diverse (bio)chemical species between them. This permselectivity behaviour results from specific functionalities of membranes, which may be achieved by designing their morphology, chemical character and topography. The full abstract of Professor Crespo’s lecture is available here.

Joao Crespo and Emmanouil Papaioannou visit Lancaster Castle

Professor Crespo was hosted by Dr Emmanouil Papaioannou, Lecturer in Bio-Process Engineering and they had the opportunity to talk for near future collaborations. The two can be seen visiting Lancaster Castle.

While visiting Lancaster, Professor Crespo also met with Professor Robert Geyer, University Dean International, and Dr Patrick Rebuschat, FASS Director of Internationalization and Liaison Officer in the NOVA Lancaster partnership to discuss the links between Lancaster and NOVA and the development of future initiatives. This included NOVA’s upcoming ‘Research in Latin America’ conference to which Lancaster will be sending a number of delegates. Professor Crespo also met with Dr Nuno Bimbo in Chemical Engineering; Professor Alistair Martin in Engineering; and, Dr Vesna Najdanovic of Engineering and Energy Lancaster.

Professor Crespo’s visit continued the ongoing exchange of ideas between Lancaster University and Universidade NOVA de Lisboa as the relationship between the two institutions continues to develop and strengthen.

Dr Patricia Murrieta-Flores Co-director of the Digital Humanities Hub at Lancaster University delivered a workshop on ‘Geographic Information Systems for Humanities Research’ in collaboration with Dr Daniel Alves at the Instituto de Historia Contemporanea at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Humanities at NOVA. The event took place on the 24 and 25^th of January. Over the two-day intensive workshop the 17 participants learnt theories related to Archaeology, History and Literature within the field of Spatial Humanities, and had the opportunity to get hands-on experience with the software and methods. Patricia and Daniel also presented advanced case studies to the audience.

The Digital Humanities Hub at Lancaster is a world renowned centre for the Spatial Humanities and the application of computational approaches to Humanities Research.

This workshop continued the ongoing exchange of ideas between Lancaster University and Universidade NOVA de Lisboa as the relationship between the two institutions continues to develop and strengthen.