The Foundation

"Eco-Mateus" is a programme based on the trinomial culture-creativity-innovation and the idea of transitioning from an ego-system logic to an economic, social and cultural eco-system logic (Otto Scharmer and Kathrin Kaufer, 2013). A logic capable of helping to respond to the fundamental challenges arising from the gradual and irreversible transformation of what was a condition of progress into a risk for mankind.

The civilisational transformation that this transition entails is of a similar order of magnitude to the technological and cultural transformations that underlie it and justifies everyone's commitment to making the ongoing process as inclusive as possible. "Eco Mateus" is an initiative geared towards the specific characteristics of the Douro and Trás-os-Montes regions, seeking to bring to the debate examples from all over the planet, ideas and methodologies that contribute to increasing awareness of the present time, in other words the ability of agents, entrepreneurs and organisations based there to anticipate and respond to the immediate problems and unknowns that the future brings.

Each year "Eco Mateus" features a conference by an international speaker, followed by a working workshop during the summer; a mini innovation school, the aim of which is to equip participants with increased skills in perceiving and resolving obstacles to the realisation of problems or projects.

"Eco Mateus" can include initiatives throughout the year that contribute to the reflections that underlie it and can also cross over with other programmes developed by the partner organisations. It is an initiative of UTAD and FCM and is carried out in partnership with international innovation experts.

Related Projects

School of Transitions

The School of Transitions is a device for studying, reflecting and testing ways of acting on the processes of climate, ecological and digital transition, but also for looking for ways to make a logical, philosophical, social and just transition. It understands the need to change our relationship with the planet, to get to know our environmental heritage in depth and to test ways of preserving and regenerating it, tackling the ecological transition in order to radically transform an economy based on extraction and find concrete paths to sustainability and symbiotic balance.

A heritage site organised around a baroque manor house built in the mid-18th century, Casa de Mateus has always been a productive farm. Over the centuries, this farm was permanently reinvented according to the needs, techniques and tools that each generation had at its disposal.

Taking as a given the principle that our relationship with the planet needs urgent renewal, the School of Transitions sets out to study biodiversity and ecological interactions in a multidisciplinary way, combining a symbiotic relationship with the environment and respect for natural cycles with the use of advanced digital techniques and tools, from digital fabrication to robotics or artificial intelligence, and adds a philosophical, social and political dimension.

In 2022, the Foundation held three editions of the Mateus Labs | Transitions programme, seeking to establish concrete bases for multidisciplinary work, sow the seeds of the Agro-Bio-FabLab to be set up at the Foundation and formulate a long-term action programme.

Throughout 2023, the residency of the Belgian artist AnneMarie Maes and the installation of her Laboratory of Form and Matter will add a look and a set of practices that take biodiversity as matter and invent new ways for it to be seen by wider audiences.

In the autumn, provided its application to the BPI-La Caixa Foundation's Promove programme is approved, the School of Transitions will begin the Library of Visible and Invisible Values project, a two-year programme of practical workshops involving the community, based on the use of open sources and DIY techniques, boosting knowledge transfer and replicability.

SABER MAIS

Mini Innovation School

The Innovation Mini-School is an initiative of the Casa de Mateus Foundation and the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. Coordinated by Alfons Cornella, a specialist in innovation and forward thinking and founder of the Institute of Next in Barcelona, the first edition took place in 2018.

As part of the ECO Mateus programme, it seeks to encourage a transdisciplinary approach to reading and understanding the plurality of opportunities and weaknesses faced by the region, to exercise reasoning on the formation of value from its endogenous resources, to familiarise the region's agents with the concepts associated with innovation management and to provide instruments and train agents for the transition between research, product development and business strategies.

SABER MAIS