CICS.NOVA is a research unit (RU) created in 2015, as the result of a synergetic merge of: CESNOVA – Centre for Sociological Studies and e-GEO – Centre for Geography and Regional Planning, both hosted by NOVA FCSH, and CICS – Research Centre for Social Sciences hosted by Minho University. These three research units had already a broad scientific activity. It is important not to neglect that work, so the websites of those former research units will remain available below. There one can find all the research developed by our researchers before they joined CICS.NOVA.
CICS.NOVA’s mission is to conduct interdisciplinary research in social sciences, to promote critical thinking and disseminate the acquired knowledge in the concerned communities, both on the national and international level, namely through the action of its regional Poles. The research unit’s interdisciplinary framework brings together knowledge in sociology and geography, as central areas, alongside other social sciences and humanities. In addition, there are strong links with life sciences, environmental sciences and engineering, which render CICS.NOVA’s scientific research particularly original and comprehensive.
CICS.NOVA assigns a particularly relevant role to teaching and advanced training, through the coordination and participation in several doctoral programs, master’s and open courses, and by welcoming researchers in academic training. An equally important contribution is the co-creation and knowledge transfer alongside policymakers, companies and other civil society organisations, particularly through the activities developed by the Observatories and Laboratories. CICS.NOVA also fosters the dissemination and communication of science and knowledge through a strong presence in the scientific community (organizing conferences, seminars and workshops, and promoting the publishing of scientific journals and books) and in the public space (fostering communities of practice, stimulating the publication of documents for decision making, developing online resources and assisting the researchers with media engagement). These priorities are guided by the interdisciplinary study of territorial systems and human behaviour, the particularities of the institutions’ functioning and their relations with the surrounding spatial and social contexts.
In this framework, CICS.NOVA intends to consolidate its position and expand its reach as a national and international reference in the production of scientific knowledge, adopting an approach developed both from theoretical and/or epistemological questions and from real-world social problems, contributing in the latter case with innovative responses that generate positive social impact. For the immediate future, CICS.NOVA is committed to attracting and keeping researchers by promoting their scientific activities, namely through the direct incentives policy for knowledge production and the synergies between teaching and research. The centre also invests in research development that addresses the main themes and challenges established in the national and international agendas, namely through the articulation between researchers and research groups and the integration of the work developed in its different regional centres, in the Azores, in Braga, in Évora and Leiria. Building on the activities of the Laboratory of Ideas, it will also seek to encourage the development of emerging scientific approaches within its scope and within the broader framework of knowledge and scientific areas it encompasses, giving them the appropriate public expression.
The interdisciplinary approach, its broad establishment in the national territory, its integration in various higher education institutions through its regional poles and its openness to life sciences, the environmental sciences and engineering are the main distinguishing features of CICS.NOVA in the context of social sciences research units in Portugal as well as the foundation of its internationalisation.
