Carry out applied and multidisciplinary research to create knowledge that can address current human, organizational and societal problems, by adopting user-centered approaches to information technologies and digital worlds.

ISTAR aims to become a reference research unit in the application of digital and computing approaches to problems of individuals, organizations and society. ISTAR values quality in research, multidisciplinary work, and innovation in the design of solutions, explanations and models for real life problems. ISTAR stimulates flexibility in its structure, diversity and cross-fertilization of scientific and technological ideas. ISTAR aims at contributing to an engaged research where societal actors from industry, policymakers, civil society and researcher can find solutions for real life problems. The unit seeks to develop applied research in the entire innovation chain, from fundamental research to demonstration and provision of services, through investigator-driven basic research, society-driven and industry-driven research. ISTAR is concerned with the analysis, design, and construction of human–based systems, focusing, in its creation, on the design of digital living spaces, on the design and construction of information systems and software, and on complexity studies and computational modeling as understanding tools.

ISTAR core lines of research for the period 2018-2022 are Smart Cities, Societal Challenges and Digital Transformation. These core lines are aligned with the priorities of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030, the Societal Challenges of H2020 and Horizon Europe 2021-2027. Within these lines we prioritize research in areas of smart & sustainable villages and tourism, Generative design, fabrication and citizen participation, Social and organization impact of the use of gamification, and Intelligent Information Assurance and Awareness.

An innovative, open and responsible research organization, concerned with the design of new answers and solutions to modern questions and problems.

The ISTAR-Information Sciences and Technologies and Architecture Research Centre is an ISCTE-IUL unit. ISTAR-IUL research lies in the convergence of Computer Science and Information Technologies, Mathematics (applied to computational problems) and Architecture and Urbanism (in its digital dimensions). ISTAR-IUL aims to become a reference research unit in the application of multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary digital and computing approaches and services to identified problems of individuals, organizations and society.

ISTAR-IUL is organized in four research groups: Digital Living Spaces (DLS), Information Systems (IS), Software System Engineering (SSE) and Complexity and Computational Modelling (CCM). ISTAR-IUL stimulates flexibility in its structure, diversity and cross-fertilization of scientific and technological ideas. Through a growing inter-dependence of the groups, we aim at empowering multidisciplinary research without losing the focus on the core areas.

Digital Living Spaces addresses the design (conceptual, modelling, simulation, or fabrication) of different types of environments for human use and exploration, including interactive systems, Virtual and Augmented Reality and digital fabrication processes for different classes of human users and in diverse contexts.

The Information Systems group focuses on information systems in organizational contexts, concentrating competencies in design, implementation and evaluation of IS’s with specific features like executive IS, decision support systems, relations between organizational IS and social collaborative networks, and niche IS’s such as e-learning, gamification, marketing, hospitality and tourism.

Software Systems Engineering tackles the complete lifecycle of large, distributed and complex software intensive services. It focuses on their specification, architecture, design, implementation, quality assurance, security, operation and evolution over time. It is also concerned with the processes, methods and tools used in the abovementioned perspectives in an economic and timely manner.

The computer based analysis and modelling of systems, in a broader sense, is anchored in the Complexity and Computational Modelling group, which aims at observing, explaining and analysing human and social systems, as complex systems prone to computational modelling through mathematical tools.

The collaboration between the four groups is critical to meet the mission of the research unit. Solutions for the identified problems of the societal actors from industry, policymakers, and civil society are achieved by knowledge and technology transfer and advanced training. The association of ISTAR with three doctoral programmes fosters constant innovation and strengthens the core areas of research (PhD programmes are PhD programme of Information Science and Technology, PhD programme of Complexity Sciences, and PhD programme of Architecture of Contemporary Metropolitan Territories. The unit team profile is composed by 33 integrated researchers, 52 PhD students and 35 collaborators from other research units and universities, with the aim of extending the collaborative network and facilitating future integrations based on shared scientific interests and opportunities.

The Advisory Board is a key element for external assessment and strategic guidance. ISTAR’s Advisory Board is constituted by four recognized experts of the academic and industrial community: Professor Bob Martens, University of Wien, Austria; Professor Geert Poels, University of Ghent, Belgium; Engenheiro João Paulo Girbal, Oeiras International School, Portugal; Professor José Fernando Mendes, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal.