Research Center
for Natural Resources,
Envioronment and Society
The Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra (Coimbra Agriculture School) (ESAC), integrated since 1985 in the Polytechnic of Coimbra, is a centenary school, offering higher education programmes in agricultural, food, environment and biotechnology sciences, strongly marked by a vocational component and an intimate connection with the entrepreneurial fabric, associations and cooperatives. The oldest agricultural school in the country welcomes the students in a 144-hectar area, on the left bank of the river Mondego.
ESAC is proud of its immemorial past and, while valuing and disseminating it, it never ceased to adapt to new technologies and changes in its dedicated sectors. The school displays modern facilities, quality equipment and laboratories, as well as vast agricultural and forest areas, which makes it a national reference in agricultural education and research.
Recently, this School has also invested in internationalising its training offer and promoting its work abroad. To this end, it carries out a series of initiatives with the aim of “opening ESAC to the community”, complementing the scientific and technical work with seminars and talks, as well as other general initiatives.
Among other areas, the 144-hectare land includes 10 hectares of sown pasture, an ovil, a riding paddock, equine pastures, livestock facilities, a field greenhouse, and an extensive forest area, with an important Quercus sp. forest.
CERNAS researchers have unrestricted access to the ESAC computer network, to scientific publications signed by ESAC or accessible through protocols. They also have access to a wide range of infrastructures and equipment, including sensory analysis laboratories, physical analysis laboratories, chemical, rheological, biochemical and microbiological, with diverse laboratory equipment (liquid and gas chromatography, UV / VIS spectrophotometry, lyophilizer, viscometers, texturometer, LactoStar, Pro-milk, aw meters, O2, CO, among others), a GIS and remote sensing lab, two dairies and horticultural technology labs / pilot plants and their supporting laboratories, an experimental kitchen with multi-purpose laboratory space, refrigeration and freezing chambers and service and warehouse spaces.