News Release

University of Aveiro researchers receive Excellence Stimulation 2005 Award

Grant and Award Announcement

Universidade de Aveiro

The Excellence Stimulation 2005 Award, for which both researchers have applied individually, recognises the high quality that University of Aveiro has been associated with in terms of research, supported by the results of its successive external and international evaluations of University of Aveiro Research Units (75% of these Units are classified as "Excellent" or "Very Good", clearly above the national average). The leadership of Aveiro in Portugal is reinstated as scientific research is concerned.

With Research defined as essential to the University of Aveiro's mission and considered of decisive importance to society development, the promotion of its quality is the strategic aim of the University of Aveiro. The maintenance of quality levels of the research of the University of Aveiro has been sustained through the adoption of organizational, financing and infrastructural measures of research backup to support the granting of master and PhD scholarships, the signing of special merits to researchers, the self financing of research projects in health sciences and technologies and the signature of program contracts with its Research Units. The Excellence Stimulation 2005 Award is recognition of the work of the researchers, which has seen 11 of his researchers receive the same distinction in 2004.

Science Stimulation

The Excellence Stimulation 2005 Award distinguishes the researchers working in Portugal, which have a professional career of scientific and technological research and have curriculum vitae of exceptional merit in their particular investigation domain. The award consists in the opportunity to highlight Portuguese researchers, whose productivity is levelled by international patterns, projecting the researcher's figure on society, thus increasing consciousness of the importance of his activity.

The attribution of the «Excellence Stimulation 2005» Award results in a financial contribution (of about 5.000 euros/year, for two years, with the possibility of being renewed for two further), granted exceptionally to the institution where the researcher works, to finance his own investigation activities and scientific dissemination.

According to the award promoters, it seeks to stimulate the excellence and competitiveness of the Portuguese scientific system in the face of the groing dynamics of science internationalization.

José Maria da Fonte Ferreira, Associated Professor with Aggregation:
I enjoy receiving awards based on objective appreciation criteria, previously defined and published, and not according to the colour of the eyes of the nominees and awarded persons. This has been an excellent initiative by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation, and should be an example to be followed by other public and private institutions that seek to stimulate high standard in the different sectors of our society.

The Excellence Stimulation 2005 Award that I have received now, in 2005, could have been granted in 2004 if I had been freer and had submitted my application on time. This Excellence Stimulation is the result of some creativity and inventive spirit, some inspiration and a lot of perspiration, not just individual, but also of an collective effort involving all the working staff of my research group, with whom I have the pleasure to work. I hope that this prize reveals itself has a bigger incentive to all my team members and if stimulates the interest of other young people for research careers.

The granting of this Excellence Stimulation Award is the public recognition, at national level, of the work I've been leading in the area of process ceramics and composite materials. It is a confirmation of the recognition and prestige we have earned at international level. We hope that this Excellence Stimulation Award, and its meaning, have some reflections in terms of internal acknowledgment, the hardest one to get.

The University of Aveiro now has twelve awarded scientists at a national level, nine of them integrated in the Ceramics and Composite Materials Research Centre (CICECO), which places University of Aveiro amongst the institutions that lead scientific research in Portugal.

Although, a feeling of self satisfaction would be bad counsel, since an effective and long-lasting leadership can not be based just on numbers or in the individual, but in the teamwork and team spirit raised around an integrative strategy and with long-term vision, which takes for granted an idea and program debate, and the ability and humbleness to learn those who know how to do it better than us.

Sergey Dorogovtsev, Coordinator Investigator in Physics Department:
I'm very pleased about being awarded this prize. Although I'm the one who has been granted it, this award also rewards the work I've been developing through time with colleagues and friends of the Department of Physics of University of Aveiro. On the other hand, I'm equally satisfied because this award is a way to make the Complex Networks area known to the scientific community, a new area under great development.

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