"The joy of coming together" is the motto of the Christmas solidarity campaign of Universidade Católica Portuguesa  (UCP) that brings together the community of the four campi (Lisboa, Porto, Braga and Viseu), with the aim of supporting more than 30 charities. This nationwide campaign which includes the collection of food, donations, and volunteer actions, will last until December 17.

One of the initiatives still in place is the collection of clothes and hygiene products for the Âlcantara Balneary. The Institute of Health Sciences (Lisbon) has collaborated with the bathhouse through a community intervention project for vulnerable populations, providing nursing services. This Christmas season, the Nursing School Students Union is collecting essential products for the day-to-day life of these people until December 16.

In Porto, it is still possible to contribute to the collection of food and clothing for Casa da Mãe Clara and Porto Solidária, also until December 16. Casa da Mãe Clara is a social project of Casa de Saúde da Boavista that provides daily assistance to 150 needy people through a full meal, health care, clothing and other basic necessities. Porto Solidário's mission is to support people and families who are in a situation of social and economic vulnerability, namely through the distribution of food.

In Viseu, the collection of food for socially vulnerable families continues, in partnership with the Ready to Help Association.

In Braga, it is still possible to participate in the raising of funds for the purchase of Christmas presents for children living in Social Solidarity Institutions, victims of mistreatment, neglect or abandonment.

These are just a few of the many initiatives that are still in effect and in which you can participate until the end of this week.

Get to know all the initiatives here

"What is going to change and what is our role as young people in the society we live in?": this is the theme that will guide Tomorrow Summit2022, in the year in which we celebrate the European Year of Youth. The event will take place on 10th and 11th November, at the Alfândega do Porto Congress Centre, and is free participation. The Porto Regional Centre will participate, for the fifth consecutive year, in an event that is organised by the Academic Federation of Porto.

The conference will feature speakers from business, government and academia. Manuela Pintado, researcher and director of the Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry Centre, will participate in the panel "The impact of technology on sustainable food systems".

"The 5th Edition of the Tomorrow Summit will be a generator of dreams and projects so that the future is a product of talent and knowledge and not just a fluke. After all, we young people wish to be the change we want to see in the world and not just spectators of a future that when it is not prepared turns out to be bleak," states the event's organisation.

The aim of this event has been to lead the discussion for "tomorrow". Leading the new generations to seize their future and set the innovation agenda are the main premises. At the Tomorrow Summit, participants will find an ecosystem of innovation, research and technology, through a platform for participation, collaboration and learning, and a unique opportunity, with truly empowering conditions, to bring your ideas to life!

The Universidade Católica will also be present at the Tomorrow Room, in a space that focuses on contact between academia, business and students to share knowledge.

In the 2021 edition, Isabel Braga da Cruz, Pro-Rector of the Universidade Católica, was a speaker on the panel "Social innovation as a driver for the reduction of regional asymmetries." Being a partner of the event for the fifth consecutive year, the Porto Regional Centre intends to contribute to the discussion of the future, to the promotion of dialogue and to the sharing of knowledge.  

See the Tomorrow Summit agenda

A group of volunteers from the VIDA project - Volunteering at Católica - participated in the collection of goods for the Apoio à Vida institution on 13 October.

The collection of basic goods for babies took place in the Auchan Amoreiras supermarket in Lisbon, with the help of six volunteers from the VIDA project. The products collected are intended for the babies of the mothers supported by the institution.

Apoio à Vida is one of the partners of the VIDA project and develops its activities in the area of support for pregnant women in difficulty at all levels (psychological, social, educational and labour market integration).

The VIDA project is aimed at students at all levels of education on the Católica headquarters campus who wish to do voluntary work. The volunteer activities available are as varied as the partner institutions themselves, ranging from study support to fundraising, rubbish collection and meal distribution, among others. Ajuda de Mãe, the Jesuit Refugee Service and Comunidade Vida e Paz are some of the associations involved in this project.

The VIDA project, organised in partnership between the Office of Social Responsibility (GRS) and Católica's Chaplaincy, provides for the complete supervision of the volunteers, from their registration to their training and integration in the different institutions.

For more information, please contact voluntariado.sede@ucp.pt.

At only 23 years of age, Francisco Dias, finalist of the Master's in Cinema at Universidade Católica, is already taking the first steps in his career as a filmmaker. In 2020, he won the prize for best film in the Take One! competition at the Vila do Conde Short Film Festival, with I don't like 5 p.m., a short film developed during his Bachelor's degree at the School of Arts.

"The film tells in a poetic and almost dialogue-free way the story of my first love, an encounter, and then, in the end, a drifting apart," explains Francisco. "The competition was fierce and I was very happy to have won," shares the young filmmaker. With the award, which marks the "beginning of a career in cinema", the film went on to be represented by an agency and presented "in other festivals, not only in Portugal, but in other European countries," and is now available on the Filmin streaming platform.

For Francisco, his passion for cinema began in high school. Divided between Cinema and Aerospace Engineering, he chose to do a Degree in Sound and Image at the School of Arts of the Porto Regional Centre, after talking to former students and visiting the University. "I felt that Católica would be the best option," he says. A conviction that he reaffirmed in his Master's degree.

A course that he considers to have been very liberating. And "important to become the person I am today," he adds. Among the strong points of the University, he highlights all the "camera, lighting and sound equipment" and the image and sound post-production studios made available to him, as well as the capacity to "develop creativity, artistic thinking and research methods". Tools that he believes will "accompany him in the future".

Francisco describes the career he has chosen as one of great responsibility. "The role of a filmmaker today is of nuclear importance," he says. "In a world where there are many images that are fabricated," he believes it is important "to convey something more true, to share real emotions, and to represent those who deserve to be represented." That's why for his Masters project he chose "to make a short film on the way the advance of the sea and coastal erosion affect the life of a community that lives by the sea"

As for the future of Portuguese cinema, he hopes for the creation of "a more solid industry, and an effort to show the Portuguese people cinema made in the country". Especially in his home city, Porto. Here he highlights the initiatives of Luís Costa and José Magro, "two students from the Universidade Católica who have started their own agencies and are developing very interesting work" in cinema.

Although he believes that streaming platforms like Filmin are a way of bringing cinema to more people, particularly short films and works by young artists, Francisco cannot give up the cinematic experience. For the artist, going to the cinema is important because of the scale, the quality, but above all the "presence of the audience, that is, being able to share the experience with other people."

This is why on this World Cinema Day he recommends three different films to see in the cinema or at home: Sem Deixar Rastos, "a story set in the 1980s, in Warsaw, of a young man who was killed by the police"; O Triângulo da Tristeza, which satirizes the extremely rich; and Alma Viva, "the Portuguese candidate for the Oscars", which represents "an authentic portrait of a family from Trás-os-Montes."

Watch the young director's 1st short film here

The Porto Regional Centre has been organising, for about 10 years, a "Tertulia" with several guests, from different fields of expertise, which aims to analyse and discuss relevant issues for Portuguese society. 

After an interruption due to the pandemic, when it functioned online, the Tertulia resumed the face-to-face model. At the same time, it also brought some changes compatible with the purpose of always: to promote the debate, free, of ideas not necessarily conventional.

The Tertulia seeks to bring the contribution of various disciplinary areas cultivated at the Porto Regional Centre (CRP) of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa: law, psychology, arts, theology, biotechnology, life sciences.

In the current context, the theme had to be Uncertainty. The title for the meeting was provocative: "Glossary of Uncertainty: to foresee is not...". After the initial interventions of the Pro-Rector of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Braga da Cruz, and the Director of the Faculty of Biotechnology and hostess of the session, Paula Castro, the Tertulia developed from the interventions of Alberto Castro and José Pintos dos Santos, the coordinators of this initiative.

Quoting Marquês de Maricá, a 19th century Brazilian philosopher, Alberto Castro states that "people generally prefer deceit, which reassures them, to uncertainty, which bothers them". "To deal with the challenges and unknowns that the future holds, it is necessary to realise that the appropriate response will be substantially different depending on whether we are talking about risks, more or less quantifiable, or situations of absolute uncertainty ("unknown unknowns"). This is certain! Let's not fool ourselves!".