SusTEC – Associated Laboratory for Sustainability and Technology in Mountain Regions is the result of the association of two UPB research units: CIMO – Mountain Research Centre and CeDRI – Digitalization and Intelligent Robotics Research Centre.
The aim of SusTEC is to move from Nature to Products through the implementation of sustainable practices and processes and digital and clean technologies. SusTEC’s focus is not on a vertical thematic field, but on transversal and transdisciplinary social challenges aligned with national and European research and innovation agendas.
SusTEC is organized along three thematic lines (LT):
LT1: Natural Resources, Agriculture and Climate Change;
LT2: Food and bio-based solutions; and
LT3: Innovative and technology-based SMEs.
LT1 works to improve agricultural systems, particularly family farming, natural resource management and economic and rural development, following an integrated approach to climate variability and change.
LT2 addresses the development of high-value foods, ingredients and natural-based products for various industrial fields through sustainable practices, which include the use of bio-waste, secondary flows from agro-industry, recycling and green technologies.
LT3 deals with the application of new knowledge and technologies to support the modernization of industry to meet current challenges in the context of digital transformation, promoting the creation of more innovative, technological and knowledge-based processes and systems that enable companies to be more competitive at national level and in international markets. It also integrates skills in the development of products and processes that consolidate a solid intervention in technology-based industries.
SusTEC’s activity is fully coordinated with:
the European Commission’s Green Deal for climate mitigation, promoting the transition to an industry based on a clean and/or circular economy;
the Farm to Fork strategy and the European Digital Strategy, helping to transform agriculture and rural areas and modernize the industrial sector;
the UN Sustainable Development Goals, namely: Eradicate Hunger; Quality Health; Decent Work and Economic Growth; Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; Sustainable Production and Consumption; Sustainable Cities and Communities and Climate Action;
national policies and the thematic agendas established by the FCT’s Research and Innovation Agenda (Industry and Manufacturing, Cyber-Physical Systems and Advanced Forms of Computing and Communication, and Circular Economy) and by the Inland Development Program.
