CERNAS – Research Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society is a research unit recognised by the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (FCT). Our aim is to conduct research in the fields of Agriculture, Food Science and Engineering, Environment and Society, promoting sustainable development on a regional basis as part of a global intervention.
For the 2015-2020 period, CERNAS established three research groups to concentrate the expertise. Forest, agriculture and livestock, will be addressed in the Agriculture Science Research Group. The questions related with the valorization of food products, the development of novel products and processes, by-product valorization and waste minimization and the studies of human nutrition will be addressed by the Food Science and Engineering Research Group. The questions of rural development, ecosystem conservation, environmental services, eco-efficiency tools and solutions and the judicious use of natural resources, including land use planning and the measurement of the societal response, will be addressed by the Environment and Society Research Group.