About

The LabCom.IFP is a research unit in the area of Communication, Philosophy and Humanities at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI), located in Covilhã, Portugal. It is supported  by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - FCT), an institution of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. 

The LabCom.IFP emerged from the fusion of two previous units, namely the Communication  and Online Content Lab (LabCom) and the Institute of Practical Philosophy (IFP).

Regarding its organizational and operational level LabCom. IFP is composed by three research groups: 

                   1) Communication and Media;
                   2) Practical Philosophy; 
                   3) Arts and Humanities.

Interdisciplinary work is carried out under three lines of research which are: 

                   - Information, Media and Society; 
                   - Ethics and Politics;
                   - Culture and New Humanities. 

The most distinctive characteristic of LabCom.IFP is its strong online presence with: 

• 4 online libraries (BOCC - Communication Sciences; BOAL - Audio Literature; LUSOSOFIA - Philosophy; BOND - Design);
• 4 online journals (Communication Studies, Doc On-line, Rhêtorikê and Eikon); 
• 1 online publisher (LabCom.IFP Books). 

Its embedded sites attract around 2.8 million visits, mainly from the Portuguese speaking world, with special mention to Brazil.

Since January 2000 we have been hosting the oldest online Portuguese academic newspaper Urbi at Orbi which offers a relevant service to the academic community, and builds a live laboratory to journalism students. It is a weekly newspaper, but it is permanently updated with the latest news. It also possesses an iphone version. This online paper often serves as the main source for the local and regional radios and newspapers that report about the UBI. The online radio and the online TV are services that provide both the academy and the public ingeneral with news from the university world.

 

Director: Joaquim Paulo Serra

Vice-Director: José António Domingues

Members of the direction board: 

• Anabela Gradim (Communication and Media)
• José Manuel Santos (Practical Philosophy)
• Francisco Paiva (Arts and Humanities)