Partnership strategy recognized in Europe
CER-UÉ has partnerships with three institutions in the Top 5 of the European Research Ranking

The Renewable Energies Chair - University of Évora (CER-UÉ, Portuguese acronym) collaborates, on a regular basis, with three research centers classified in the Top 5 of the European Research Ranking 2020

The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), which occupies the first position of this ranking, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung EV (Germany), second place, and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (Switzerland), integrate, along with CER-UÉ, the SFERA III - Solar Facilities for the European Research Area project consortium, which is ongoing until the end of 2022.

These four institutions worked together before on the international networks STAGE-STE (Scientific and Technological Alliance for Guaranteeing the European Excellence in Concentrating Solar Thermal Energy) and SFERA II, while INSHIP (Integrating National Research Agendas on Solar Heat for Industrial Processes) brought together Portuguese, French, and Swiss research teams. The projects EU-SOLARIS (European Solar Thermal Research Infrastructure for Concentrated Solar Power), NEWSOL (New StOrage Latent and sensible concept for high efficient CSP Plants) and TrustEE (Innovative market based on Triust for Energy Efficiency investments in industry) also integrated the RE Chair and some of these European research centers. 

CER-UÉ also has a close relationship with the Deutsches Zentrum Fuer Luft - Und Raumfahrt EV, a German research unit that occupies the 16th position of the ranking, through the partnership for development of Évora Molten Salt Platform (EMSP), UÉ's research infrastructure in the area of solar thermal with use of molten salts, located in Évora and which is part of the National Research Infrastructure in Solar Energy Concentration (INIESC). 

A network of partners and projects that Pedro Horta, CER-UÉ researcher and Chair Holder, considers to reflect “the strategy of permanent participation of this Chair in the most outstanding research networks in the field of solar energy.” 

Over a decade of existence, celebrated in November 2020, CER-UÉ represented the University of Évora (UÉ) in 13 out of 51 European consortia (25%), with a global budget of around 92 M€ (corresponding 38% of the global budget for projects with the participation of this university), having also been the entity responsible for one of the six projects that were coordinated by UÉ units in this period.

The European Research Ranking evaluates institutions from 27 European countries with research projects that receive funding from the European Commission, based on criteria such as the total number of projects in which the institution participates, total funding allocated to these projects, number of partnerships and participations in consortia, project leadership indexes and the diversity of research areas. In 2020, UÉ rose more than 500 places in this ranking, standing among the first 500 in terms of the number of projects, having integrated the consortium of seven international projects.

Published in 15.04.2021