WHAT IS THE REN CHAIR?

The REN Chair in Biodiversity was created in July 2015 in the context of a protocol set between CIBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (University of Porto), REN (the Portuguese Transmission System Operator), and FCT (the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology). It aims to develop a scientific research programme and knowledge transfer activities, at the University of Porto, on biodiversity impacts caused by electric grids. The main research lines of the REN Biodiversity chair include understanding the negative and positive impacts of transmission power lines, the evaluation of the effectiveness of mitigation and compensatory measures, and the identification of good management practices that maximize potential positive impacts.

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Besides the scientific component, REN Chair also contemplates scientific consulting to REN through counselling and supporting in the context of Environment Impacts Assessment (EIA) studies, as well as analyses of biological and technical data collected by REN in the last 20 years. This way, researchers and REN technicians have worked together to solve practical questions with relevance for REN activities (i.e. reduction of bird mortality and mitigating outages caused by birds).

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The first protocol established between the three entities had a duration of 5 years (2015-2020), with Chair’s work being funded by REN (75%) and FCT (25%).

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To maximize the accumulated experience and to continue the research and knowledge transference activities on this wide thematic line of the interactions between biodiversity and power lines, a new Chair (financed by REN and FCT) started in January 2021 with a duration of 3 years (2021-2023). Its working plan was then expanded through the project NORTE-01-0246-FEDER-000063, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).