Scenarios for Coimbra 2030

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

The course unit is organized in classes, sessions with the partners of the 2020 platform and conferences with invited specialists and other relevant entities of the Region. The 6 sessions with the teachers aim at introducing the themes of the program and pointing out clues for the research. The 5 sessions will be organized by the GAL - Local Support Offices with action in the Region. The conferences frame and raise critical analysis of relevant themes for the students' projects.

The curricular unit will be evaluated for application in the R&D project, developed in articulation during the course, under the guidance of the trainers of the various curricular units. The evaluation of the project integrates the presentation of Parcel Reports at the end of each phase, in group and individual, and a Final Report, which will also be publicly presented, with the following weighting in the final grade: Parcel Reports 3*20%; Final Report (including public presentation) 40%. 

Learning Outcomes

This curricular unit offers a territorial perspective of the economy allowing students a broad perception of the territorial organization of public policies. The characterization of the Centro region in the national context and of the Coimbra Region in the context of the Centro Region allow students to get to know the territorial context of the Coimbra 2030 platform's activity. Students will be stimulated to close look the present, in order to reflect on the new strategic environment and explore the future consistently. It is also intended that students understand planning as a process of consistent articulation between anticipation and action, as well as the importance of building strategically relevant scenarios for assessing the impacts of decision-making, in a new post-pandemic reality.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Territory and economy. Territorial organization of public policies
2. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes (NUT). European regions: an illustration through the Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS).

3. Characterization of the Centre region and the Coimbra region.
4. Coimbra 2030: a platform for the development of the Coimbra Region.

5. Prospective Analysis: anticipating to act (prospective vs. forecasting; prospective and strategy)
6. The importance of Context: reading the environment (organization; sector; global); competitive intelligence and change.

7. Construction of relevant scenarios and the future: focus and time; Crucial trends and uncertainties.
8. Decision-making tools in the context of uncertainty: Horizon scanning and Scenario planning & Thinking.

Head Lecturer(s)

Luís Filipe Gens Moura Ramos

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Final Report (including public presentation) 40%: 40.0%
Parcel Reports 3*20%; : 60.0%

Bibliography

Vázquez‐Barquero, A., & Rodríguez‐Cohard, J. C. (2019). Local development in a global world: Challenges and opportunities. Regional Science Policy & Practice, 11(6), 885-897.
Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2019, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2019
Alvarenga, A., Rocha, F., Barros, M.M., Mano, M. & Gonçalves, T.C. (2019). Da Análise Prospectiva à construção estratégica In Machado, C. & Davim, J.P. (coord), MBA para Gestores e Engenheiros, (pp 23-70). Lisboa: Edições Sílabo. ISBN: 978-989-561-007 5 http://www.silabo.pt/livros.asp?num=648