The University of Aveiro (UAVR) is among the most dynamic and innovative universities in the country. UAVR has around 14000 students and a unique model of governance (16 Departments, 4 Polytechnic Schools and various training centres) and seeks to develop and maintain a supportive research environment, where researchers can count with a solid and experienced administrative, financial and legal structure.

UAVR has a strong research profile contributing to the progression of science and technology, and a privileged partner to companies and other national and international organizations with which cooperate in numerous projects, providing important consultancy and services. UAVR is also an actor as a regional network for education and training by promoting strong links with the surrounding community.

During 2013, 501 projects were active in UAVR, of which 71 were financed by international and European Programs. In FP7, UAVR is/was involved in 52 projects. These projects are developed by 18 research centres of several scientific areas (environmental and marine sciences; materials; nanoscience and nanotechnologies ; telecommunications; electronics; telematics; mechanical technology; automation; geosciences; cellular biology; organic chemistry of natural products; mathematics; education; behavioural sciences; languages and cultures; technologies and communication sciences; governance, competitiveness and public policy; politics for higher education; music and design).

Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) is one of the four Associated Laboratories of the University of Aveiro, being one of the few interdisciplinary research units connecting environmental and marine sciences in the Iberian Peninsula. CESAM has approximately 450 members, 200 of whom have a PhD and 200 are PhD students, from six departments of the UAVR. It also includes members from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. International cooperation of CESAM is well documented in many jointly published papers in leading international journals (ca. 50% of the 428 ISI papers published during 2013 included researchers from international prestigious institutions). At post-graduate level, CESAM has well established national and international collaborations in teaching. E.g., CESAM members are involved in two Joint Erasmus Mundus Doctoral Programmes. CESAM has high capacity to generate knowledge and attract funding from public announcements and R&D&I contracts. During the 2009-2013 period over 130 R&D&I projects were initiated, financed through national and international competitive public calls, corresponding to ca. 14.5M€. These include 39 projects where CESAM is a participant institution, while the remaining are coordinated by CESAM Members.

UAVR leads WP5, Causalities between Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functions and Services and the case study on the Vouga River, from catchment to coast in Portugal.

Dr. António José Arsénia Nogueira

Dr. António José Arsénia Nogueira holds a PhD in Aquaculture from University of Stirling (Scotland) (1996) and Habilitation in Biology from the University of Aveiro (2005) with long time experience in the area of Functional Biodiversity and Ecotoxicology. He was a professor at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, until 2002, when he moved to the University of Aveiro as Associate Professor. He is the coordinator of the Ecotoxicology research group at the Center for Ecotoxicology Environment Studies and the Sea (CESAM), since 2005. He has a vast experience of participation in national and international scientific committees, grants and projects, as well as coordination of national projects and Portuguese teams in international projects involving European institutions, Latin American and Asian. Has supervised 11 doctoral and the 20 master students and accounted for 5 post-doctoral researchers. Author/co-author of 83 articles in ISI Web of Science (81 on SCOPUS). Has an h-index = 20 (ResearcherID: rid=A-8304-2008) and h-index=21 (em SCOPUS authorId=7102266309), and h-index=27 (Google Scholar Citations: user=ER7wqVIAAAAJ). He is a member of SETAC -Europe (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) since it was founded (1991), integrating the steering committee of the Risk Assessment Advisory group since 2012.

Dr. Ana Isabel Lillebø Batista

Dr. Ana Isabel Lillebø Batista is an Assistant Researcher at the Department of Biology & CESAM, University of Aveiro (UAVR). She holds a PhD in Biology (2001), University of Coimbra. She is a well-established researcher in Coastal Ecosystems, with contributions to more than 100 communications, 36 technical reports; 25 book chapters, 2 books (Ed.) and 66 ISI-indexed papers (h-index=21; w-index=7). She has research experience in aquatic systems ecology, anthropogenic impacts and environmental chemistry, but also has interests in ecosystem services and integrated coastal management strategies. She has participated in Portuguese and EU funded projects: as coordinator (FCT; EU/FP7); as work package and/or case study leader (EU/FP7 CIRCLE-MED Era Net; EU/H2020); as PI for the University of Aveiro (FCT; PROMAR/EU Fisheries Fund); as team member (GOI/Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; FCT; EU/DGMARE; OHMI (France); EU/FEDER-POCTEP).

Dr. Maria de Fátima Lopes Alves

Dr. Maria de Fátima Lopes Alves holds an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning and a PhD in Sciences Applied to the Environment from the University of Aveiro (Portugal). She is professor at the Department of Environment and Planning at the University of Aveiro and researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM). Her main fields of expertise are Integrated Coastal and Marine Management, Coastal and Marine Governance, Communication and Public Participation Process, and Climate Change Adaptation Measures and Policies, in coastal areas. She is participating/has participated in national (FCT) and international research projects (EU LIFE ENV, FP7 and INTERREG IV, CIRCLE_MED) on ICZM, MSP and Environment Planning. Some of these projects are TPEA (DG MARE), LAGOONS (FP7), SPRES (INTERREG IV B: ATLANTIC AREA) and ClimAdaPT.Local (EEA Grants). She has also vast experience in the coordination of multidisciplinary teams has member of the coordination team of the Portuguese MSP and CZM Plans in the Portuguese mainland and of Azores islands.

Dr. Marina Dolbeth

Dr. Marina Dolbeth is a research fellow at CESAM and Department of Biology from the University of Aveiro. She has been working with the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems under natural, anthropogenic and climate-induced changes. She has studied the interdependencies between fauna diversity levels, particularly for estuarine benthic invertebrate and fish communities, and ecosystem processes and functions, such as secondary production. More recently, she has been working with functional diversity approaches, its relationship to ecosystem functions and in decision support frameworks for environmental management. She holds a PhD by the University of Coimbra.

Dr. Amadeu M V M Soares

Dr. Amadeu M V M Soares has his PhD in Zoology from the University of Sheffield (1989) with habilitation for full professorship from the University of Coimbra, Portugal (1997). His main work areas are ecotoxicology and functional biodiversity. He was previously a professor at the University of Coimbra, Portugal until the year 2000, when he moved, by public call, to the University of Aveiro, Portugal, as an Associate Professor. He became a full professor in 2004 and Head of the Department of Biology since 2001, and also leads the Research Group on Ecotoxicology and Functional Biodiversity. He has gained wide experience in participating in national and international assessment committees, for individual grants and projects, and also as a PI/coordinator of national and international R&D projects, involving European, Latin-American and Asian institutions. He is the author/co-author of more than 400 papers published in ISI Web journals, with an h-index=40 (see metrics in ResearcherID:A-8304-2008). In addition, he is a founding member and president (1996/97) of SETAC-Europe (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry), and a main organiser of the 1st SETAC World Congress, held in Lisbon in 1993, and the 17th SETAC-Europe Annual meeting, in Porto in 2007. He is an associate fellow of the Canadian Rivers Institute, University of New Brunswick, Canada (from 2006), a member of the Strategic Council of Universidade Lúrio (Mozambique) and, from 2011, a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research-IDAEA, from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

Heliana Teixeira

Dr. Heliana Teixeira holds a PhD in Biology (Ecology) by the University of Coimbra (2010) and is an assistant researcher at the Department of Biology & CESAM – University of Aveiro, where she recently joined after a 3-year postdoc at European Commission Joint Research Centre, in Italy. Her research focuses on the use of indicators to understand trends in Estuarine, Coastal and Marine ecosystems, in relation to anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. She has great experience on the implementation of the Water and Marine EU Directives, where she has been working to gather scientific evidence in support of environmental policies and conservation actions. Among her current interests are the potential of modelling approaches coupled with ecological indicators, and the development of tools to facilitate environmental assessments. In AQUACROSS she will focus on understanding causal links between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services in aquatic systems.

Job title:

Researcher