Profile Information

The IPRI is an Institute dedicated to advanced studies in Political Science and International Relations.

The IPRI research unity (RU) is an autonomous organic unit of FCSH/NOVA and is part of IPRI-NOVA which is an academic research institute founded in 2003 by the NOVA University of Lisbon, the Luso-American Foundation for Development (FLAD) and the Orient Foundation with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. IPRI-NOVA integrates also since 2012 enterprises such as MillenniumBCP Foundation, EDP Foundation, BPI and REN. It has been recognized as a Public Utility Institution since 1 October 2010 for services rendered to the community in the field of culture, through the promotion of academic research in political science and international relations within a multidisciplinary framework.

As an Institute dedicated to advanced studies in Political Science and International Relations IPRI-NOVA defines itself as a structured and integrated project around three fundamental axis: scientific research; specialized training – doctoral and post-doctoral programmes; and knowledge transfer and social value creation.

IPRI-NOVA is an Institute that works according to the paradigm of the research university integrating research and training, that is, an Institute where knowledge is produced, in its fields of expertise and also where teaching is carried out in a research environment.

IPRI-NOVA is not a think tank, but assumes its social responsibility and its public mission in the contemporary society, developing applied research, strengthening its relation with the public policy making world and increasing its presence in the public sphere.

As regards research, IPRI-NOVA cultivates excellence and wishes to be acknowledged by the quality of its theoretical research, the relevance of its empirical studies and its commitment to the western values and epistemologies. Its theoretical work is defined by standards internationally recognized by the state of the art of its disciplines, and IPRI-NOVA wants to stand amongst the best in its disciplinary areas – Political Science and International Relations. The Institute also aims to promote dialogue and inter- and trans-disciplinary projects involving other areas of knowledge, as it is already doing in its research projects as well as in the Globalization Studies doctoral programme (Health, Environment, Energy, Economics and Law).

As regards training, the Institute, in close collaboration with the Political Science Department-FCSH/NOVA, promotes a policy of advanced training that integrates teaching/research and also incorporates the doctoral and post-doctoral students in the research projects developed by the Institute. In this way, besides the advanced training present in the post-doctoral projects and the two Doctoral Programmes undergoing – Political Science and International Relations – the Institute is involved in an internationally competitive Doctoral Programme: open, trans-disciplinary, issue oriented and offered in English, the FCT-funded Doctoral Programme on Global Studies. Regarding knowledge transfer and social value creation domain, the Institute assumes its social responsibility. Its scientific agenda is defined by fundamental research, but when the knowledge produced may be socially useful, the Institute has a policy of knowledge transfer, making it available to the society as a public good. Bearing this in mind, IPRI-NOVA promotes oriented research and applied knowledge, and has developed a relationship with the public policy-making and to the demands and challenges of contemporary society. This has been evinced by the support to decision-making, in public policies (Ministries) or in the entrepreneurial sector (enterprises), as well as, in its presence in the media (newspapers, radio, TV), reinforcing its position in the public sphere. Besides the above-mentioned areas, the Institute develops its own tools of knowledge dissemination: the website, its publications, and the publishing of the quarterly academic journal R:I.