Cátedra UNESCO em Educação e Ciência para o Desenvolvimento e Bem-estar Humano (EDUWELL)

The EDUWELL Chair is the result of a partnership between several Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), in association with institutions from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor, with the aim of addressing inequalities in technology, education and scientific knowledge, which are some of the greatest challenges of the 20th century. Through a multidisciplinary approach based on the areas of Education and Science, it aims to prepare new generations to face the future challenges of a highly competitive global world, investing in the creation of scholarships, post-graduate programs, short-term training and incentives for research and development of its institutions, as ways to network and promote learning, knowledge transfer, creation of opportunities and scientific debate among the various partner entities.

This chair promoted by UNESCO has as its main mission to contribute to the development of a society based on education, creating conditions for citizens and governments to become scientifically literate and provoking social transformation through the creation of knowledge about the different areas involved, which influence intercultural dialogue, well-being and sustainable development.

As far as action lines are concerned, the following goals were defined as priorities:

• Combine the experience in the different areas of each partner to achieve high level learning and research in areas of national and international priorities important for conducting the policies of each country;
• Collaborate with international universities and research institutes of excellence for permanent exchange of master and PhD students as a way to be permanently informed on the scientific advancements and reinforce the internationalization in the domains under development;
• Interact with European partners and others through establishment of collaborations in R&D programs;
• Maintain, improve and keep actualised the conditions in order to permanently enable professors and researchers to undertake the different programs and develop up-to-date research while minimising costs;
• Increase the dialogue with industry as a way to take profit of results from research and contribute for the advancement of knowledge and increase competitiveness;
• Create conditions for:
1. Mobility of researchers among partner countries
2. Teaching at graduate and post-graduate levels in the knowledge areas proposed;
• Consultancy and definition of strategies for training and research development in subjects considered important for human empowerment in accordance to the specific needs of each country and the UNESCO Goals;
• Open the dialogue with different sectors of the society in order to share knowledge from the research and define needs and constrains in special when gender equality, empowerment, human health, sustainable economy and environment preservation are concerned;
• Use of modern digital technologies available in the different partner institutions to share and promote the dialogue and disseminate knowledge and education.