Instituto Politécnico de Bragança

The Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (IPB; www.ipb.pt) is a HEI with 9,000 students, 1,000 faculty members and researchers, offering vocational short courses, bachelor and master degrees. IPB is an inclusive and multicultural institution where 36% are international students from the five continents.

IPB has 6 schools (School of Agriculture, School of Education, School of Health, School of Technology and Management, School of Communication, Administration and Tourism, School of Hospitality and Wellness). The schools are based in three cities in the North of Portugal (campi in Bragança, Mirandela and Chaves). IPB also offers vocational short courses in other cities in the North of Portugal, including Santo Tirso, Valpaços, Mogadouro, Famalicão, Torre de Moncorvo, Macedo de Cavaleiros, Peso da Régua, Carrazeda de Ansiães, Chaves and Vimioso.

Its activity embraces a wide area of knowledge and technology, namely arts, communication and multimedia, business sciences and law, education and teachers training, agriculture sciences, natural resources and food science & technology, health and civil protection, tourism, sports and leisure, and technologies.

The IPB area of influence (the region of Trás-os-Montes, Portugal) is a typically Mediterranean mountain region, neighbouring Spain, with a low population density and with exceptional environmental values. The region has four Natural Parks and two UNESCO Biosphere reserves, which demonstrate its unique environmental value. This mountain environment also generates unique opportunities in a global scenario increasingly pressured by climate change and sustainability challenges. It is in this context that IPB has become a world reference in mountain research.

IPB has five R&D units funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Mountain Research Centre; Research Centre in Digitalisation and Intelligent Robotics; Research Centre in Basic Education; Research Unit Applied to Management; Polo of the Research Centre in Sports, Health and Human Development). The Laboratory Arts in the Mountains – Graça Morais is a research and practice project in Arts, being also funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. The Associated Laboratory Sustainability and Technology in Inland Regions (SusTEC) is the only of its kind wholly based on the Polytechnic System and inland regions. SusTEC intends to approach, in a holistic, transversal and multidisciplinary way, and in total alignment with the national and European research and innovation policies and agendas, the societal challenges to promote the sustainable development of inland regions.

IPB is the promoter of the Science and Technology Park - Brigantia EcoPark, in cooperation with the Municipality of Bragança. Brigantia EcoPark is a scientific institution of interface and business incubator. It currently comprises about 100 companies, half of which are technology-based companies in incubation and the remaining innovation centres of consolidated and well-stablished companies. MORE is one of the two collaborative laboratories that IPB is a founding partner. Its mission is to promote the development of mountain regions, to generate innovation in new products, processes and services. The other co-lab is AquaValor focused on valorisation and transfer of water technology and based in the city of Chaves.

The IPB Business School is a postgraduation school, providing students with a set of innovative and challenging experiences that go far beyond the advanced training in management. It is a hub for the acquisition of skills and knowledge towards the development of a successful lifelong professional career. The IPB Business School provides companies and organizations in the region with postgraduate training and short courses that allow, to continuously train human resources and contribute to the creation of business innovation. It intends, in a collaborative way, to contribute so that business and organizational agents enhance their entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and value creation, bearing in mind a profitable performance, but also socially sustainable. The IPB Business School spreads its action to several locations in the region, in a close proximity to the working context of each company or organization.

IPB is a close partner or promoter of several museums, such as the Portuguese Language Museum, the Iberian Museum of Masks and Costumes or the “Centro Ciência Viva- Bragança” promoting outreach activities on scientific culture.