University of Coimbra (UC), founded in 1290, is a reference in higher education and R&D in Portugal, with excellent academic reputation recognized worldwide due to the quality of the courses taught at its eight colleges and to the advances achieved in pure and applied research in various scientific domains and on technology related areas. UC pursues a policy of continuous improvement in several areas, ensuring high standards of teaching and research, as well as being an active participant in the development of the corporate world. UC is in constant search for improvement and enhancement of knowledge, research and technology, targeting scientific and technological excellency through its different R&D units working in strict collaboration based on EU H2020 and PT2020 projects. This is archived by bringing together experts from different scientific disciplines with a long experience in teaching, research, knowledge transfer and consultancy in different areas in a R&D context. UC offers advanced training programs in different areas that bind to technology, where we highlight those related to MIT Portugal Program.
Relevant to the OPTIMA project is the Center for Industrial Ecology (CIE), the Center for Functional Ecology (CFE) and the Center for Business and Economics Research (CeBER). UC has an extensive practice on Life-Cycle Assessment and other extended life-cycle approaches (CIE), on Risk Assessment (CFE-ERA) and on decision support systems (CeBER), the expertise required for the assessment and comparison of health, environmental, social and economic impacts and risks of conventional and proposed IPM crop protection systems in the OPTIMA project.