The serious and rigorous work carried out in recent years, during both the previous and the present Strategic Projects (2010-2013-4/2015-2018/2019), interlinking research with the academic world, nationally and internationally, with cultural/ heritage institutions and municipalities, and in articulating with civil society, was rewarded towards the end of 2018 and through 2019 with multiple successful results.

It is with pride that we may look back at the scientific research results produced by our teams and verify the rigour of their research and our researchers’ concerns over internationalisation are fully reflected in a numerous, quality scientific production, reputed and recognised, at all levels, inside and outside of Portugal.

Over the past year, the Institute of Medieval Studies was approved by the FCT in three of the eleven national research projects receiving funding in the areas of History of Art, Literature and History (two as IR and one as participant).

We also hired eleven Ph.D. researchers under the transitional norm stipulated by Decree-Law 57/2017, two of which as part-time lecturers at FCSH, and we are also the host institution for another Researcher hired under the FCT Individual Scientific Stimulus Program. At the end of July, we already obtained two more doctoral scholarships for IEM doctoral students from the FCT.

Our institutional collaborations have been deepened, with emphasis on the activities ongoing with the Monastery of Batalha, Castelo de Vide Municipal Council and the Monastery of Alcobaça, with which we have started new and exciting activities that serve to strengthen the ties already uniting us and that enable us to promote Medieval Studies in previously untouched environments and surroundings and with the consequent results and impacts. The projects we have for the coming years provide us with optimism over these extremely productive partnerships.

We have provided professional training for specific professional groups, such as tour guides or municipal technical specialists responsible for culture and tourism as well as promoting our research among audiences such as secondary school teachers and the general public through highly successful open courses that return measurable impacts.

Collaborations with the Lisbon Municipal Archive of Lisbon and the National Torre do Tombo Archive resulted in several outputs even while the exhibition on the production of foodstuffs “Pão, Carne e Água: memórias de Lisboa medieval (Bread, Meat and Water in Medieval Lisbon) was perhaps the most mediatic event of this academic year that is now ending. The adhesion of the public and the national and international coverage ensure we may refer to a mission well accomplished!

The ongoing cooperation with the REQUIMTE (NOVA FCT) and HÉRCULES (UÉvora) Laboratories has allowed us to enrich our research with innovative and very promising research approaches and perspectives in a factor shared by the Medieval Archaeology field, whose work, excavations and analyses, disseminated by our teams in the meetings and congresses taking place throughout this year, also promise very relevant levels of innovation.

Medievalista online also continued to come out regularly, meeting every quality criteria, in two excellent issues.

Between September 2018 and July 2019, we held dozens of scientific meetings of various kinds, from major International Congresses to more specialised workshops or more restricted Masterclasses, trying to meet the wishes and needs of students and researchers at all levels. In keeping with the path already set out in past years, the Initiation to Research Workshops provide for the integration of students from all educational levels into projects taking place at the IEM and with this participation serving to foster the development of effective research habits and practices.

The end of 2018 finally brought about a long pursued but so far unachieved ambition: that of winning a European project. The VINCULUM. Entailing Perpetuity: Family, Power, Identity. The Social Agency of a Corporate Body (Southern Europe, 14th-17th Centuries) project, led by Maria de Lurdes Rosa, was awarded the first ERC Consolidator Grant in Medieval History in Portugal and thereby projecting the work done within the IEM to the level of prestigious European research agencies.

Coupled with this good news came another equally auspicious break through: we were also in the winning team of a COST Action submission for theproject Islamic Legacy: Narratives East, West, South, North of the Mediterranean (1350-1750). One of our researchers, Alicia Miguélez, was elected as Vice-Chair, further contributing to the profile and recognition of the work done at the IEM.

To this leading role as a European project PI, we can add the over 30 IEM researchers who continue to collaborate and participate as individual researchers and, in one case, as a PI, in projects funded by foundations or international agencies, as well as in two other COST actions in which the IEM is also present.

Indeed, the end of the academic year, July 2019, brought us the achievement of another ambition, recognition of the IEM as a research unit deserving the classification of Excellent by the FCT, and the corresponding attribution of a budget for 2020-2023 that will allow us to deepen the research and support researchers in a much more sustained and even more ambitious and demanding way than thus far.

Hence, for all of these reasons, we may close this cycle with great enthusiasm, ready for the new year of work that awaits us beyond August!

Happy holidays to us all, good rest and see you soon!