University of Porto creates Conference Center coordinated by Valente de Oliveira and Elisa Ferreira

The University of Porto will inaugurate a Conference Center this Wednesday, July 16 , at 5:30 p.m., involving the academic community, public decision-makers, and civil society. The initiative is coordinated by Valente de Oliveira, professor and former Minister of Planning, and Elisa Ferreira, former Minister of the Environment and former European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms.

"The Conference Center aims to be a forum for civic engagement and discussion of the major issues of our time, with a real impact on the community. We mobilize our best experts to present proposals and solutions to the problems of the city, the region, and the country," explains António de Sousa Pereira, rector of the University of Porto.

The conferences, meetings, and debates will be free and will take place in the Rector's Main Hall. "We aim to regularly address topics directly related to a wide range of fields of study, from geopolitics to technology, including economics, urban planning, the arts, health, and sports," adds the rector.

The opening session will be led by José Miguel Lameiras. The professor of Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP) will present a strategic study prepared by faculty and researchers from the University of Porto for the reconversion of the VCI (Internal Beltway), which proposes the progressive transformation of the current urban highway into a sustainable, integrated, and multimodal urban infrastructure.

The work is part of the project "Porto 2050: Mending the City via the VCI," an initiative that aims to reposition this road as a structuring and cohesive element of the city. This repositioning involves "creating a large urban green ring, structured along the VCI route, by enhancing currently fragmented green spaces and connecting with existing parks and green spaces, contributing to biodiversity, air quality, and mitigating the heat island effect," explains José Miguel Lameiras.

The FCUP professor also proposes "the requalification of the main road junctions of the VCI as multifunctional zones, capable of accommodating new public spaces, affordable housing, collective facilities and, in particular, retention basins for controlled flooding."

The vision for this new urban corridor is based on principles of ecological planning and sustainable mobility and is inspired by international success stories. The project includes the creation of a multimodal urban transportation system, integrating public transportation on a dedicated channel, two road lanes, segregated cycle paths, and pedestrian paths. "This system will allow for the transportation of a significantly larger number of people, with greater efficiency and less environmental impact than the current road model," he states. "At the same time, it will contribute to reducing congestion and improve internal mobility within the city, offering reliable public transportation alternatives, including for the daily commuters entering and leaving Porto," he adds.

The inaugural conference will also feature speeches by Rector António de Sousa Pereira, and the Conference Center coordinators, Luís Valente de Oliveira and Elisa Ferreira, who will explain how the initiative works and launch future actions , as well as the Director of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, Ana Cristina Freire.