The European project was approved last June 2018, by the ERASMUS PLUS program, a strategic partnership in the area of Higher Education called “Train the trainees – Train future trainers in radiation protection and nuclear technology” that will be coordinated in UBI by LABEXPORAD from UBImedical.
Current and future market needs in the nuclear industry are enormous for qualified nuclear engineers, technologists, radiation protection professionals and radiation protection specialists. For example, by 2020, more than 100 nuclear reactors will be in a standstill in Europe and the number is predicted to increase by 8% a year. Many professionals need to be retrained in the work context. In addition, in other sectors, a transition towards the adoption of the Sustainability Development Goals (ODS) was initiated, a series of objectives agreed upon by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015.
The main objective of the project is to develop “international advanced training in nuclear technology and radiation protection” through the design of interactive distance learning modules and face-to-face / laboratory modules. Our current and future nuclear engineering students will begin their careers in this transitional world and will play an important role as radiation protection specialists, future trainers and teachers, supervisors and / or radiation protection consultants across all industries. Thus, this initiative emerges as a strategic platform to provide the necessary learning and updating through the design and implementation of a training program in the nuclear area that is attractive and appropriate to the objectives of development of sustainability (ODS), oriented to the transition to a world’s best until 2030.
The project has partners such as Haute Ecole Bruxelles-Brabant (Belgium), Universiteit Hasselt (Belgium), UBI (Portugal), Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain), Universita di Bologna (Italy), Hochschule Mannheim University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Czech Technical University in Prague (Czech Republic) and Greek Atomic Energy Commission (Greece). At UBI, the project is sponsored by LABEXPORAD, under the coordination of Prof. Sandra Soares.