Research Centres
CEPCEP (Study Centre on Peoples and Cultures) is a research centre of the Portuguese Catholic University, established in February 1983.
CEPCEP pursues the development of culture, knowledge, advanced research, and co-operation in the intellectual, artistic, technological and scientific fields, bringing together people from different walks in life and from various continents. In accordance with its charter, CEPCEP aims at furthering the understanding of human and cultural interactions throughout the world and the collaboration in the advancement of knowledge in all fields related to human and social behaviour. CEPCEP runs an intensive editorial activity touching a wide range of initiatives encompassing books, studies, working papers, and encyclopedia.
From 1983 to date CEPCEP has maintained a high academic profile with an adequate geographical representation: Portugal, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The Centre has carried out numerous courses, intensive seminars and exhibits a wide portfolio of research projects.
The Centre of Religious History Studies (CEHR) is a R&D unit from the UCP. With a national dimension the CEHR has its headquarters in Lisbon and a branch in the UCP´s regional centre in Porto with affiliated members from all the major public universities. Its main objective is to contribute to the study of the social phenomena and dynamics from the point of view of their religious articulations inscribed in the Portuguese historical space bearing in mind the different locations of the religion the actors´ categories and the complexity of the several contexts thus contributing to the historical understanding of societies. The CEHR promotes research projects seminars scientific meetings and publications such as the journal Lusitania Sacra. In the area of postgraduate training the Centre hosts doctoral projects is a partner in the Interuniversity Doctoral Programme in History (PIUDHist) and collaborates with the Master and PhD programmes on History and Culture of Religions in the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (FLUL).
CECC was created in 2007 as an interdisciplinary hub in the Humanities responding to the challenges brought about by globalization and media change and the growing awareness about the role of culture in shaping the 21st century. CECC's mission is the study of culture literature art and communication as drivers of societal change and the promotion of advanced research training in the humanities with a focus on the development of innovative cross-disciplinary challenge-based inquiry. CECC's objects of study are texts in the broad semiotic sense of the term from literature and the visual and performative arts to news posts or tweets. It is focused on old and emerging discursive techniques driven to underpin the strategies whereby meaning is constituted where the virtual meets the physical and hence redesigns the very idea of the human. The changing practices in communication enabled by digital technologies and new media as well as
the trials of cultural interaction in the wake of human mobility prompted by opportunity need or conflict are reshaping today's cultural dynamics. Aimed at unpacking this change and its impact on the wider circulation of intellectual energies across the globe in late modernity CECC structures its research according to two tracks that reveal the complementary conceptual dynamics of the centre's scholarly work. Under the perspective of "Cyber Humanity" CECC studies the impact of technological and digital change on cultural development as well as the central role of media in the construction of cultural narratives. Under a second and complementary perspective CECC studies "Global Cultures" in their diversity both as a matter of conflict and belonging.
Católica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR) is a non-profit institute founded in 2022 with a vision to advance the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases. Our goal is to be internationally recognised as a reference biomedical research institute.
In the next 10 years, we will establish 16 multidisciplinary research teams across a wide research portfolio to address fundamental questions related with health challenges and clinical research. Our mission is to empower talented investigators who combine innovative technologies that bridge biomedicine, biology and engineering, to foster a collaborative and creative environment and potentiate efforts towards solutions.
CBR is embedded in an ecosystem aspiring to advance human health through research and innovation in medical teaching and practice. Together with the Católica Medical School, Hospital da Luz Lisboa, and Union of Portuguese Misericordias, CBR takes part in the first non-governmental Clinical Academic Center in Portugal - Católica Luz.
CBR is currently hosted at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência campus in Oeiras as to capitalise on available resources and highly specialised infrastructure, via a collaboration agreement between with the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the Gulbenkian Foundation. Our researchers have access to the state-of-the-art facilities, such as advanced optical and electron microscopy, flow cytometry, genomics, and animal facility (mice, rats, zebrafish, Drosophila). At the same time, proximity to Católica Medical School campus in Sintra (10 km) allows close interaction with students and other teaching staff.
CBR has a simple horizontal organisation and is led by its Director and Board of Directors. These are supported by the Scientific Advisory Board that plays an important role in steering the strategy of the institute and reviewing its work. The Societal Advisory Board on its end provides guidelines on strategic relationship with relevant societal actors, as to bring society's needs to the scientific agenda, disseminate research results and build competences among citizens.
Founded in February 2017 the Research Centre for Theology and Religious Studies (CITER) is situated on the cusp of humanities cultural and social studies philosophical hermeneutics and theory of literature. Knowledge in the field of religion and its varied phenomena traditions and grammars is an essential instrument for discovering ways to understand our world and contemporary culture. By means of a multi- and interdisciplinary approach CITER aims to promote and disseminate research work in Theology and Religious Studies with a special emphasis on dynamic interchanges between the two scientific fields but recognising their methodological distinction. While Theology focuses on studying the sources of religious codes and interpreting the contexts in which they are received Religious Studies seek to interpret religious phenomena on the basis of cultural studies and the social sciences more generally. CITER is the only research centre in Portugal specialised in these two academic fields.
Established in 1997 CUBE is the business and economics research unit of CATÓLICA-LISBON a top 30 European business school according to Financial Times ranking and among 1% of business schools worldwide to hold the coveted "Triple Crown" of AACSB EQUIS and AMBA accreditations. The mission of CUBE is to be among the top research groups in business and economics in Europe recognized internationally for its research excellence publications in top journals and impact on society. In periodic assessments by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) panels of international experts CUBE has always received the highest grade (EXCELLENT). In the 2014 evaluation CUBE received - 24 5 out of 25 - the highest score of any social sciences research unit in Portugal.
CRC-W is a societal challenges-oriented interdisciplinary research centre with the goal to: coordinate promote and disseminate research on individual family and social wellbeing. The conceptual focus on "wellbeing" provides an integration of psychological social work educational and other scientific approaches which provide different but complimentary approaches based on a people-in-context perspective.
CRC-W research especially focus on: A) understanding and enabling resilience in individuals families communities and organisations to overcome vulnerabilities maladjustments and barriers to their wellbeing and safety (e.g. Emerging risks enabling healthy & sustainable lifestyles; Family adjustment & development processes; Economic behaviour careers & entrepreneurship; Public policies social practices & vulnerabilities) in order to provide evidence-based research to fundament practice guidelines towards effective preventive & therapeutic interventions and public policies; B) basic and developmental approaches to emotion and cognition processes that affect and signal wellbeing (e.g. emotion empathy and morality in prosociality & wellbeing; basic processes in economic social and health contexts); and C) innovative methods and technologies use (e.g. ICTs) to facilitate capacity-building interventions at the personal family and societal levels (e.g. lifelong learning; therapeutic and educational tools; crisis communication).
The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health (CIIS) aims to contribute with solutions for a 4P approach to Health: Predictive Preventive Personalized and Participatory. To achieve these goals CIIS is organized into 5 platforms. SalivaTec Platform is focused on innovative salivary research using Bioinformatics and Computational Biology strategies to find new Biomarkers and Molecular Mechanisms altered in disease. Precision Oral Health Platform is focused on the production of data on Oral Health data and their annotation and integration with systemic health molecular and QoL data in order to develop solutions for support in diagnostic and intervention. The NeuroTransform Platform is dedicated to the study of brain neuroplasticity mechanisms and their application in Brain Machine Interface solutions transfer of neuroscience discoveries to schools through science communication the development of tools and support for professionals dedicated to the evaluation and wellbeing of the deaf and the development of strategies for the evaluation and rehabilitation of people with brain injuries and the understanding of pain mechanisms and chronic pain management. The Nursing Research Platform focuses it research on vulnerable populations. This platform includes the Wounds Research Lab where the mechanisms implicated in chronic wounds and tissue viability diagnosis and surveillance solutions and interventions are studied. The Health & Innovation Platform will focus on immunological regulation in endocrine and malignant disorders; epigenetic regulation and manipulation of chronic myeloid neoplasms.
CIEP is the Research Centre of the Institute for Political Studies and is fully aligned with the Institute's vision and strategy. Additionally CIEP reflects the Institute's commitment to have not only the best teaching school for political studies in Portugal but also to develop research that is an undeniable reference at the national level and whose high quality merits international recognition and is able to contribute significantly to the scientific field of political science.
In an era when knowledge tends to represent the key to development CIEP's mission is to conduct high quality research in political science (particularly in its core fields of political theory comparative politics and international relations) that provides the intellectual tools and frameworks to deal with the great contemporary societal challenges not only to Portugal but also to the Portuguese language world.
CIEP brings together researchers from various specialist fields including European Studies Comparative Politics Politics of the Sea Public Policies International Relations Defence and Security and Political Theory and is structured into two main research groups - Political Theory and Comparative Politics and International Relations Security and Defence. With a strong international outlook CIEP fosters and encourages the internationalisation of its researchers and their research projects.