On May 19th and 20th we were visited in Évora by our Internal Evaluation Committee (IEC), an advisory body of IN2PAST whose mission is to monitor the activity of the associate laboratory (AL) in order to assess its progress and suggest adequate measures and improvements.

Responsible for analysing IN2PAST’s regular operations and issuing the reports it deems appropriate, the IEC is made up of selected external experts and personalities, working mainly in foreign institutions, with recognised scientific expertise in the areas in which the AL operates.

Currently composed of Dace Dzenovska (University of Oxford), Felipe Criado-Boado (Incipit-CSIC), Francesc Cortès i Mir (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona), Henrique Leitão (CIUHCT – FCUL), Nathan Schlanger (École Nationale des Chartes – PSL) and Yacy Ara Froner (Escola de Belas Artes – UFMG), it was approved at the plenary meeting of the Scientific Council held on 24 January 2025 in Braga, at the proposal of the Board, and has a three-year mandate. Only Felipe Criado-Boado did not travel to Évora.

The IEC was welcomed on the afternoon of the 19th at Casa Cordovil, University of Évora, by the almost complete Coordinating Committee of the Scientific Council (CCSC), including the president of the Scientific Council, Nélia Dias (CRIA – Iscte), the president of the Board, António Candeias (HERCULES – UÉvora) and the vice-president José Neves (IHC – NOVA FCSH), as well as Board members Joana Cunha Leal (IHA – NOVA FCSH), José Mirão (HERCULES – UÉvora), Manuel Pedro Ferreira (CESEM – NOVA FCSH) and Paulo Simões Rodrigues (CHAIA – UÉvora), other representatives of the seven research units in the CCSC,  coordinators or representatives of the Thematic Lines, and the science management and communication team.

In a very intensive three-hour meeting, the five members of the IEC, who had previously received a 30-page report on IN2PAST’s activity over the first five years of its existence, did not shy away from asking for any clarification they deemed necessary, asking uncomfortable questions or paying compliments.

Assessing the first five years

We talked about quality, ambition, breath, success, new forms of collaboration, doctoral networks, public policies, publications and white papers, but also about funding, budgets and self-perpetuation, future challenges, new research agendas, connections to the business community, environmental costs and natural heritage, or artificial intelligence and the crisis in heritage sciences.

In the evening, we joined the In2Future Boot Camp 2025 welcome dinner, served at Monte Alentejano by Cantares de Évora, an association dedicated to Cante Alentejano (Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity) and local gastronomy.

On Tuesday morning, 20 May, the IEC members and part of the IN2PAST team visited the HERCULES Laboratory facilities at Vimioso Palace, led by António Candeias, during which they saw some unique equipment in Portugal – such as the laser ablation system (LA-ICP-MS), used to analyse trace elements in materials in very minute concentrations – and interacted with several researchers at their benches.

Nathan Schlanger and Dace Dzenovska were also guest speakers at the IN2PAST Doctoral School’s Inspiring Talks #2 and #3, which took place in the afternoon at Palácio de Dom Manuel, on Marcel Mauss’ ‘the gift’ as heritage, and on ‘Things, relations and other socialist matters’, in relation to the EMPTINESS project and the text Bordering encounters, sociality and distribution of the ability to live a ‘normal life’ (DOI 10.1111/1469-8676.12075). The moderators were Afonso Dias Ramos (IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST) and Rita Luís (IHC – UÉvora / IN2PAST).

The IEC will now produce a report that will help IN2PAST’s governing bodies to correct the weaknesses and maximise the strengths identified.