The Collaborative Laboratory (CoLAB) ForestWISE, constituted to develop research, innovation and technology transfer activities to increase the competitiveness of the Portuguese forestry sector and reduce the negative consequences of large rural fires, starts its activity by opening more than two dozen vacancies for senior researchers and project managers.
Aiming to promote multidisciplinary research and knowledge transfer in integrated forest and fire management, increase the competitiveness of the Portuguese forestry sector and reduce the negative consequences of rural fires, joining efforts with the university, public entities and industry, ForestWISE was awarded with the Collaborative Laboratory (CoLAB) label by the FCT in 2018 and has now more than two dozen open positions to constitute its technical team. The applications are open until 31 May on the ForestWISE website (www.forestwise.pt), directly accessible at: www.forestwise.eu/work-with-us/. The goal is to hire researchers and project managers in Forestwise’s scope of work (Forest Engineering, Industrial Management, Public Policies, Public Policies, and similar). Referring to the senior researchers opportunities, the objective is to recruit Ph.D. graduates with professional experience in project management related to forestry and fire. The vacancies for project managers also require professional experience in project management, but in any field of activity.
The ForestWISE technical team, which has its headquarters in Vila Real at the UTAD campus, will be constituted, in this start-up phase, by about 25 elements, number that is expected to gradually double until the end of the fifth year of activity. The team will use the infrastructures available at CoLAB’s headquarters and delegations in other regions of the country, as well as the existing infrastructures and equipment of its associates.
“ForestWISE is the result of an unprecedented effort to bring together experts in areas of research in a joint, interdisciplinary and holistic approach, which combines scientific knowledge in forest management, fire prevention and and fire-fighting, including ecological, economic and social interactions, as well as for the technical qualification of a wide range of stakeholders,” explains José Manuel Mendonça, president of the Board of Directors of ForestWISE who also chairs the Board of the Institute for Systems Engineering and Computers, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) and is a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP).
With 15 associates, ForestWISE was formally established at the end of 2018, as a non-profit association under private law, endowed with legal personality, with the aim of developing R&D&I activities and transferring knowledge and technology, having developed, with the widest participation, a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.
Currently ForestWise members are divided between: business – Altri Florestal, Amorim Florestal, EDP Distribuição, DS Smith Paper Viana, REN, Sonae Arauco Portugal and The Navigator Company -, academia – INESC TEC, Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade de Lisboa, Universities of Aveiro, Évora, Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro and Coimbra -, public bodies – AGIF and INIAV.
For more information, please contact: media@forestwise.pt
