VINCULUM won a distinction at the Yerun Open Science Awards for the educational program developed by its researchers. Aimed at secondary school students, the initiative “YOU CAN BE A HISTORIAN: opening academic research to schools and communities through students’ engagement in local heritage” aimed to implement an open science model that links the production of scientific research with the teaching of humanities in secondary schools, encouraging the use of research results based on challenges suited to the students’ knowledge and interests. The awards ceremony took place on Friday, February 14, via Zoom and all the information can be found here.

Noting the educational importance of discovering heritage, two pilot projects were defined: the competition “Cria Vínculos com a História” and the citizenship activity “Vínculos com (a) História: à descoberta das Casas Históricas da Ribeira Lima”. In both cases, the project team provided research data to students, in collaboration with teachers and local heritage experts. The students were taught how to explore them and encouraged to produce concrete results, including a short text in the case of the competition, while the second case involved accompanying visitors to the historic houses. They were also encouraged to reflect on problematic issues in history, such as identity, violence or enslavement.

The competition ran from June 2023 to July 2024 with the support of the History Teachers’ Association and the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. Eleven classes were selected, with a total of around 250 students. Each class received a “research dossier” and was accompanied in zoom classes by the researcher in charge, in close contact with the class teacher.

The citizenship activity “Vínculos com (a) História: à descoberta das Casas Históricas da Ribeira Lima” focused on deepening openness to local communities. It started from the protection of a region’s characteristic heritage, which is also important for generating tourist revenue. It took place in the town of Ponte de Lima, in the north of Portugal. In collaboration with the Secondary School, the Municipality and heritage promotion associations, 50 students were selected to receive training on the heritage to be visited and to accompany the owners of historic houses that had never been open to the public for four days. The activity included 20 historic houses and welcomed around 1,500 visitors.

YERUN – Young European Research Universities Network – is a European network of young research universities and the aim of the award is to recognize the innovative efforts of individuals and teams in promoting Open Science practices within the network. The award highlights impactful projects that exemplify the principles of transparency, accessibility and collaboration in research and beyond.

You can watch the award ceremony here and read VINCULUM’s presentation here.