Portugal - TEPSA

Portuguese Institute of International Relations – New University of Lisbon

Country: Portugal

Director: Nuno Severiano Teixeira

Website: http://www.ipri.pt/index.php/en

IPRI is an academic research institute founded in 2003 by the New University of Lisbon, the LusoAmerican Foundation for Development (FLAD) and the Orient Foundation (Fundação Oriente), with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG). It is home to various researchers specialising in political science, international relations, contemporary history, comparative politics, diplomacy and economics. It has been recognised as a Public Utility Institution since 1 October 2010 (Diário da República 203, 2nd Series, Part C, of 19 October 2010) for services rendered to the community in the field of culture, through the promotion of academic research in international relations within a multidisciplinary framework.

During its first years of activity, the IPRI-UNL concentrated its academic work exclusively on international relations, developing a line of research in that field. However, given the eminently multi-disciplinary nature of the field, the academic work has demonstrated the theoretical need for and relevance of a broadening of the academic areas covered by the Institute to include political science. IPRI is organized according to three Research Groups and one Thematic Line. The Research Groups – i) Globalization and Regionalism, ii) Democracy and Governance and iii) Strategic Foresight and Planning – are essentially discipline-oriented, corresponding to the Institute’s main disciplinary areas, and representing the ongoing work in research, teaching and knowledge transfer. The Thematic Line – European Union: overcoming the crisis and future challenges – on the contrary, is issue-oriented, receiving the contribution of the three Research Groups and represents the strategic priority elected by the Institute for the next six years. The Thematic Line constitutes the answer and the contribution of the Institute, in its area of expertise, to the challenges faced by contemporary societies as formulated by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

Within the framework of developing its academic activities, IPRI-UNL has traced three basic goals: first, to promote academic research in the fields of political science and international relations from an inter-disciplinary perspective and in accordance with international benchmarking standards; second, to support the training of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in political science and international relations, and to integrate them into international networks; third, to develop not just theoretical work, but also applied research that can respond to the needs of the community and the market, as determined by the internationalisation of Portuguese society. With this in mind, five strategic priorities were laid out:

The development of lines of academic research: through research projects organised into two Research Groups – one working on political science and the other on international relations;
The training of researchers: the IPRI-UNL operates as a host and support institution for researchers who are undertaking their doctorate or post-doctoral studies in the fields covered by the Institute;
The establishment of a reference and documentation centre:the creation of a regularly updated specialised information and documentation centre, integrated into Portuguese and international cooperation networks, to serve the research needs of the IPRI-UNL as well as the general public;
The development of an editorial line: the publication of the results of the Institute’s research projects and other academic activities at different levels and using different forms of dissemination – including books, the Relações Internacionais (R:I) Journal, a Newsletter, Working Papers, Occasional Papers and the Institute’s website;
The promotion of scholarly debate in political science and international relations: through the organisation of courses, workshops, colloquia and conferences on the areas covered by the Institute and other topical issues of interest and relevance to the community.

IPRI is a member of TEPSA since 2013.

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