Ciência Viva 1996-2002

1) Government policies and measures:

Promoting S&T Culture has been a political priority in Portugal between 1995 and 2002, explicitly included in the national budgets and in the strategic options approved by parliament. The establishment of the Ciencia Viva programme in 1996 and the creation of a National Agency for the Promotion of Scientific and Technological Culture as a non-governmental organisation in 1999 are a direct result of these options, which were pursued under the responsibility of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The Ciencia Viva Programme has three main areas of activity:

(a) science education in schools, (b) Science and Technology awareness of the general public and (c) interactive science centres.

Since 1996, 5 annual call for projects have been held, and 3,058 projects have been funded. Until the end of 2000, over 3,000 schools, 7,000 teachers and up to 600,000 students were involved. In the fifth call for projects, 718 new projects have been approved, the funding criteria have been expanded to include the creation of resource centres for science learning through practical activities, development of technological projects, publishing documents and creating and developing web pages. The total funding already attributed for the first year of these new projects is of 2.975.880 Euro.

Project management based on partnership and co-funding has brought a new form of organisation and interaction between basic and secondary education teachers and science and technology professionals. A Programme for the "Twinning Between Schools and Scientific Institutions", which aims to promote joint activities and provides technical and scientific support to schools, strengthens this process. There are presently 38 schools twinned with 20 scientific institutions.

In parallel, since 1997 the initiative "Science in the Holidays for Young People" provides work experiences for the students in research laboratories during one or two weeks during the summer holidays. This initiative is now widespread, involving 55 scientific institutions across the country and 2,006 secondary school students had the opportunity to participate since 1997. In 2001, a similar initiative addressed to school teachers was launched experimentally involving 50 secondary school teachers, in 5 research laboratories.

(b) National science and technology awareness campaigns are aimed at narrowing the gap between the general public and the scientific community in a direct and lively way. These initiatives are free and open to all, with a focus on practical activities, providing active observation and interaction with specialists from the relevant fields. They are intensely publicized on the media (newapapers, radio, TV). A toll-free telephone line and a web site are available for enquiries.

Each summer, field activities are organized to promote astronomical observations and geological and biological promenades. "Astronomy in summer" now involves the main astronomical observatories and all the amateur astronomer’s associations, providing more than 1600 events since 1997. All Departments of Geosciences have been involved in the initiative "Geology in summer", where more than 900 events in all the country. "Biology in summer" started in 2001, with 11 invited research institutions providing 95 events near the main portuguese cities.

Geology in summer

Several International scientific film festivals have been supported and a prize for the best Portuguese scientific film is awarded in the context of one of these Festivals. All the foreign films selected for competition are subtitled in Portuguese and remain available in Portugal. Schools and other institutions can afterwards borrow them from the organizers.

(c) Ciência Viva Centres are designed as interactive science centres for the general public, which also provide the opportunity for scientific, cultural and economic regional involvement.

The Pavilhão do Conhecimento – Ciência Viva, in The Parque das Nações in Lisbon has been open to the public since July 25th, 1999, and plays a fundamental role as the national resource centre for all Ciência Viva Centres. This Science Centre is a multipurpose area, which has interactive science and technology exhibitions, a media library, cyber cafe, bookshop and an auditorium where regular public conferences are held.

The Algarve Ciência Viva Centre in Faro, which has been open to the public since 1997, was the first in a national network of interactive science centres. Today, this network includes the Oporto Astrophysics Centre Planetarium, the Infante D. Henrique Exploratorium, in Coimbra, and also the Visionarium – Europarque Science Centre, which is an associate member of the Ciência Viva Centre network. Other projects to create new Ciência Viva Centres have already been launched around the country. These interactive Science Centres promote regional development on a scientific, educational, professional and cultural level.

In parallel with the creation of new centres, a call for projects was launched in 2000, which is aimed at producing interactive exhibitions and granting scholarships for science museology courses abroad. A financial support of 189.767,66 Euro has been awarded to scientific institutions, science and technology organisations and professionals in the framework of this call.

An International Evaluation and Steering Committee has been established. Its evaluation reports are available. From the Report of 2001:

Initiatives making particular use of the Internet:

Initiatives making special approaches to ethnic/cultural minorities or the disabled:

Special emphasis is put in the inclusive role of science activities in all Ciencia Viva actions. A very important role is played by the Lisbon Science Center (Pavillion of Knowledge- Ciencia Viva) in this respect, through its special targeting of minority groups and of the disabled. 

Actions to diffuse science and technology in TV and radio channels

The Ministry of Science and Technology has also helped to launch a permanent S&T section (freely available on the Internet) in the national news agency Lusa.

Two annual series of debates on science were held under the auspices of Ciência Viva: "A Ciência tal qual se faz" ("science as it is done") and "A Ciência tal qual se discute" ("science as it is discussed"). Organised by the philosopher F.Gil, these conferences introduced to high school teachers and to the general public some of the present leading international researchers on Science Studies. The debates were webcasted and the first one is already published as a reference book for students and teachers.

The budgetary envelope for these activities has been politically defined as around 5% of the budget of the Ministry. This general rule has been applied in all budgets since 1996 until 2002. In 2002, the annual budget for Ciência Viva is 13.110.000 Euro, of the order of 5% of the (investment) budget of the Ministry of Science and Technology.