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Great news for students in Portugal! Earlier this week Vodafone Portugal and the University of Lisbon Faculty of Sciences (FCUL) signed an agreement to create a laboratory devoted to research and development projects related to mobile technologies.

The Laboratory will operate within the curriculum of the Master's degree in Computer Engineering by assigning projects to a range of disciplines appropriate for their implementation and in line with objectives and issues identified jointly by Vodafone and FCUL.

A specific area has been selected for the establishment and operation of the Laboratory – the 'Vodafone App Factory' room – where students and lecturers attached to each project will have access to a range of mobile devices, including phones and tablets, and communication services that will allow them to develop and test projects with appropriate resources and in an environment as near as possible to the situation of end users.

This initiative follows the identification by both organisations of the need to create a model to promote links between the University and Vodafone in order to encourage and benefit from the transfer of technical knowledge and expertise between the two communities.

This close collaboration between one of the best Computer Engineering higher education schools in Portugal and the mobile communications sector leader worldwide aims to strengthen incentives to innovation and the entrepreneurial skills of the academic community and at the same time to encourage monitoring and anticipation of trends in the industry in order to anticipate and bring to market quality solutions that satisfy customers of mobile services and particularly consumers of technology.

This is yet another 'powered by Vodafone App Factory' initiative in which Vodafone is seeking to provide incentives to technological communities, developers and Portuguese start-ups to develop entrepreneurial and innovation skills applied to the creation of projects, which will then be developed and promoted by Vodafone not only locally but also in other markets where the Group has a presence.