Today marks one year since I assumed the position of Director of CESAM, becoming the first Director under the new governance model. It has been a demanding, intense, and at times vertiginous year, but also an immensely stimulating one. It is therefore an appropriate moment to pause briefly and reflect, not so much on what I have done individually, but above all on what we, collectively, have been able to build.
A Mandate Initiated with Strong Collective Confidence
Before reflecting on the past year, it is important — also for institutional memory — to recall the starting point of this mandate.
The May 2025 election resulted, in the context of a single-candidate election, which are typically difficult in terms of mobilization, in 117 votes out of 160 voters, within an electoral body of 216 Integrated Members. This corresponds to 54.2% of the total number of CESAM Integrated Members. This result deserves careful consideration. Based on the comparable data available, it represents the highest explicit level of support ever granted to an individual CESAM leadership, both in absolute number of votes and in percentage relative to the total number of Integrated Members.
Its significance becomes even clearer when compared with previous elections. In 2021, in a contested election with two candidates, I was elected with 98 votes, corresponding to 41.0% of the 239 Integrated Members. In 2017, also in a contested election, the winning candidature obtained 101 votes, corresponding to 48.8% of the 207 Integrated Members. Previous single-candidate elections yielded different figures: 64 votes in 2015, within a universe of 208 Integrated Members, and 35 votes in 2005, within a universe of 78 Integrated Members.
This is significant not because of the comfort it may provide to the elected Director, but because of the signal of institutional maturity, mobilization, and internal cohesion that it represents. For the first time, according to the recent data available, a CESAM leadership received explicit support from more than half of all its Integrated Members.
I interpret this result as a demanding and highly responsible vote of collective confidence. It constitutes a clear mandate to lead with ambition, transparency, and respect for the scientific and human diversity of this community — including colleagues who did not vote, who voted blank, who cast null votes, or whose position was expressed in other ways, and whose trust I will continue striving to deserve.
The strength of the mandate received does not reduce the level of responsibility; it increases it.
It was with this awareness, and with the institutional weight of those 54.2%, that I sought to conduct this first year of office.
A Year of Consolidation and Institutional Affirmation
My assessment of this first year is positive, though cautious. Many of the results now visible stem from work previously prepared by the entire CESAM community. My role as Director, supported by the four Vice-Directors, was, within the scope of our respective responsibilities, to consolidate this collective effort, create conditions for continuity, strengthen internal articulation, and better project the scientific quality and institutional identity of CESAM as a whole.
We began this mandate with a particularly significant achievement: the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) awarded CESAM the classification of Excellent and the maximum possible score — 15 out of 15 points — a distinction never before achieved by CESAM. This recognition is the result of years of collective work, the careful preparation of the evaluation process, the community’s engagement with the international evaluation panel, and the sustained effort of all involved. Having served as Scientific Coordinator during the previous cycle, it was a privilege to contribute to and help shape this trajectory; however, the result belongs, and will always belong, to the community that made it possible. It was upon this solid foundation that we sought to build this first year.
This milestone was followed by the approval of 15 applications in the 7th edition of the FCT Individual CEEC programme — 10 Assistant Researcher positions and 5 Junior Researcher positions — corresponding to a success rate of 21.9%, significantly above the national average of 14.4%. Additional highlights included a record number of CESAM researchers listed in the Stanford/Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists ranking and the inclusion of several colleagues in the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list.
Throughout this period, CESAM news and activities reflected an active, competitive, and highly engaged scientific community operating in central areas of environmental research: climate change, biodiversity, the ocean, coastal systems, pollution, environmental health, sustainability, ecological restoration, scientific literacy, and support for public decision-making.
From a scientific and financial perspective, 2025 and the beginning of 2026 demonstrated CESAM’s capacity to attract competitive funding and coordinate national and international research initiatives. The institutional balance released publicly referred to 68 projects initiated in 2025 and early 2026, representing more than €14.29 million in funding, with a strong presence of scientific coordination roles. These figures should be interpreted cautiously from a temporal perspective, as they do not correspond exactly to the strict period between 15 May 2025 and 15 May 2026. Nevertheless, they clearly reflect a strong institutional dynamic: the CESAM community continues to compete, coordinate, and collaborate at the highest level.
In a context of budgetary uncertainty, it was also possible to mobilize internal resources to compensate for funding cuts applied to approved projects, implement two promotions of permanent research staff, and launch two non-academic chairs associated with the Administration of the Port of Aveiro and RiaSearch. These steps are particularly relevant because they reinforce CESAM’s installed scientific capacity, strengthen links with strategic partners, and contribute to the institution’s long-term sustainability.
Particularly significant was the implementation of two PRR-funded initiatives dedicated to infrastructure and re-equipment: the multiannual funding programme UID/PRR/50017/2025, amounting to €1,833,904.86 and aligned with the Strategic Plan 2025–2029, and EQUIPAR+2 (UID/PRR2/50017/2025), amounting to €809,967.18. Together, these investments total approximately €2.64 million allocated to scientific equipment, infrastructure, specialized software, and computational systems. Both programmes have an execution deadline of 30 June 2026, making the coming weeks a highly demanding operational challenge that strongly mobilizes CESAM’s administrative and financial management services, as well as the University of Aveiro’s public procurement teams. It is an effort we undertake with the full sense of responsibility that these resources require, and whose successful completion will represent a structural milestone for CESAM’s installed scientific capacity in the years ahead.
The year was also marked by research with clear societal relevance. Recent work highlighted issues such as air pollution and environmental inequalities, persistent contaminants in porpoises, dolphin mortality associated with bycatch, coastal erosion and resilience, environmental health, biodiversity, and climate change. These examples, among many others, demonstrate CESAM’s capacity to connect fundamental knowledge, environmental observation and monitoring, conservation, innovation, and decision support.
The ocean and coastal dimension received particular visibility. The 1st Ocean Research Forum, promoted by CESAM in collaboration with other research units, brought together researchers, scientific institutions, policy-makers, and representatives of the maritime sector to discuss priorities for ocean science in Portugal. Among other initiatives, the A-AAGORA project, coordinated from CESAM, continued to project internationally our work on coastal restoration, nature-based solutions, and participatory governance, including participation in the European Ocean Days 2026 and the organization of the A-AAGORA Spring School.
This was also a year of growing European and global affirmation. CESAM’s presence in relevant scientific and institutional forums, participation in international networks, project distinctions, and the establishment of new dialogues with partners in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe confirm a trajectory of increasing internationalization. In this context, we also launched the PIP — CESAM Internal Projects Programme — aimed at strengthening strategic international collaborations and ensuring continuity of commitments established in both the action programme and CESAM’s FCT application.
The beginning of the celebrations marking CESAM’s 25th anniversary constitutes another important milestone. Celebrating 25 years means acknowledging a solid trajectory in the fields of environment, marine ecosystems, and sustainability, while simultaneously preparing the future with greater integration, ambition, and responsibility.
Perhaps one of the most important signs of this first year has been the confirmation that CESAM is increasingly an institution trusted by society, public entities, and institutional partners. This trust was reflected in the diversity and increase of service provision activities, participation in environmental impact assessments, contributions to public policies, collaborations with national and international entities, and a qualified presence in the media whenever scientific expertise was required on environment, ocean, water quality, air quality, climate change, biodiversity, and sustainability.
We also strengthened science communication. The audiovisual series ABSTRACT helped transform scientific publications into short, accessible, and useful narratives that promote transdisciplinarity within and beyond CESAM. ScienceCast, CESAM Reportagem, the initiative Learning with CESAM, participation in public science events, and scientific literacy actions directed at children, young people, families, and non-specialized audiences all contributed to bringing CESAM closer to society and increasing the visibility of our community’s work.
The year also brought individual and collective distinctions that greatly honour CESAM and confirm the national and international projection of our scientific community. I will not attempt to list them exhaustively here, since any such list would inevitably be incomplete. Nevertheless, I wish to express a clear word of recognition to all those who, through their work, publications, projects, awards, networks, and scientific responsibilities, strengthened CESAM’s prestige.
Recognition and Next Steps
This balance is not mine alone. It belongs to all of us.
It belongs to the faculty members, researchers, and scientists who made possible every article, every project, every application, and every collaboration. It belongs to doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, fellows, and scholarship holders, who represent the future in construction. It belongs to the technicians, science managers, administrative teams, communication teams, accounting services, and management support staff, without whose discreet and highly competent work everything would be even more difficult than it already is. And it also belongs to all those who assumed responsibilities in scientific coordination, leadership of lines and clusters, participation in networks, commissions, working groups, and national and international projects.
The Director’s responsibility is to create conditions, remove obstacles, and define priorities. But results emerge from collective work, distributed competence, and mutual understanding and trust.
The second year will be demanding. The national scientific and technological system, currently undergoing profound transformation, faces increasing challenges in funding, attracting and retaining talent, responding to climate change, transitioning towards circular bioeconomy models, and consolidating the role of research units and associated laboratories within the national framework, European missions, and public policies. Yet this first year confirmed that CESAM possesses a capable, creative, generous, and resilient community — a community that conducts rigorous science and places that knowledge at the service of the common good.
CESAM celebrates its 25th anniversary with critical mass, scientific reputation, and the capacity to respond to complex problems. The next step must be to transform this strength into greater internal integration, greater predictability in management, greater financial sustainability, and stronger international projection.
To all of you, my sincere gratitude for your commitment to CESAM.
Let us continue, together, striving for a stronger CESAM and Caring for the Future.
Amadeu Soares, Director of CESAM.