Directors of three faculties reappointed for the 2024-2027 triennium

‘This is a celebratory moment at the Universidade Católica when we swear in new heads of academic units,’ said Isabel Capeloa Gil on the occasion of the renewal of the mandates of the heads of the Higher Institute of canon Law, Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Biotecnology, on 17 July.

The UCP President welcomed the reappointed directors João Vergamota, Filipe Santos and Paula Castro emphasised the importance of these ‘three units of very different scientific and academic scope, but which truly represent the multidisciplinarity of a university and its mission as a Universidade Católica, which is to serve the purposes of development for the common good’.

With regard to the directors, Isabel Capeloa Gil highlighted ‘the role of strategist’ of João Vergamota ‘who has managed to strengthen recruitment to the Institute and the retention of teaching staff and internationalisation’; the action and leadership of Filipe Santos reflected in the success of the Católica Lisbon School and the remarkable work of Paula Castro who ‘in a leading research school has had the courage to propose absolutely innovative projects, one of which is the new degree in Sciences and Society’.

Filipe Santos expressed his gratitude to the President and the entire Rectoral team for their renewed trust and said: ‘It is with an enormous sense of humility and service that I accept this new mandate as director of Católica Lisbon’. He also emphasised ‘the strong spirit of alignment and collaboration between the school and the Rectorate’ and referred to the ‘huge leap forward in the Campus Veritati project’.

Paula Castro also thanked the President's team for the ‘implicit trust in the reappointment’ and all those who have contributed to the ESB ‘reaching the level of excellence it is at today’.

‘Being at the forefront, opening up paths, creating solutions, becoming a reference is a life plan for the ESB and transcends each of its professionals and directors,’ she added, ’it only becomes possible when the synergy between us merges into a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.’

João Vergamota said that ‘the inauguration of the new board of the Institute of Canon Law takes place on a significant anniversary of the twentieth anniversary of its foundation’.

Referring to the dimension of research and the dissemination of Canon Law, he emphasised: ‘Twenty years on, we can see that this academic unit has been consolidating itself, not with the force of a storm, but with the serenity of a passing breeze, and the fruits it has borne are countless’.

He ended with the following reflection: ‘I count on the help and friendship of all those present and many who were unable to join us today, but above all on the One who said: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” and it is to him, Jesus, that my greatest praise and thanks go, because it is in fact at his service that we are when we dedicate ourselves to Canon Law.’