E.Tec – State, Enterprise and Technology

E-Tec conducts multidisciplinary research on the interplay between State, enterprise and technology, aiming to develop scholarship and policy inputs that may contribute to the creation of an economic and social value which is more effective, sustainable and fair.

The policy relevance of the research is heightened by the group’s interaction with the surrounding economic and social fabric in Portugal, in an enhanced university-industry-society interface. Building on the IRs expertise and research projects already funded or pending funding by the FCT, the research will be mainly organised along four research strands:

1. Industry 4.0 – focusing on technological innovation (with the digital transformation of both society and industry) as an opportunity to revitalize the economy but also as a source of legal challenges (e.g. liability, intellectual property rights, new business models) [Collaborative Laboratory DTx – Experiencing the future, funded by the FCT];
2. Artificial intelligence and robotics – premised on the changes in the way society organises itself, brought about by the introduction of robots into everyday life, and designed to revisit traditional institutes of civil and criminal liability, as well as to map the implications for organised society (public administration, business organizations and, in particular, labour relations) [Project ROSOTRA, submitted under the 2020 programme];
3. Health Law – focusing in particular on the corporate and contractual aspects of this field of law, to cover e.g. hospital management services, liability for medical acts, public health concerns and patent legislation, in close cooperation with the health and bioethics research strand of the human rights group;
4. Governance – focusing on the challenges to good governance, for both public entities and corporations, in particular, the challenges that arise from our current technological society.