CoLABOR Days 2021
PRESS RELEASE
Universities, companies and the third sector launch data platform on work and social protection
It's called DataLABOR and will provide national and international data on work, employment and social protection. It was born out of a collaborative laboratory, CoLABOR, which brings together higher education, three of the country's largest employers and the social sector. It will contribute to the formulation of public policies, such as the response to the pandemic caused by COVID-19, and at the same time provide companies, trade unions, business organizations and the third sector with the information they need to manage, make decisions and formulate strategies.
DataLABOR, an innovative platform that aggregates and provides access to statistical and legal data on work and employment, social protection and the social and solidarity economy in Portugal, will be presented on November 6, 2020. The presentation will take place in Auditorium 2 of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, at a session that will be attended by the Prime Minister, António Costa, and by the leading personalities of the Associates.
DataLABOR is an initiative of CoLABOR, the Collaborative Laboratory for Work, Employment and Social Protection created by eight organizations: the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra; the Institute of Economic, Financial and Tax Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon; ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon; the National Confederation of Solidarity Institutions - CNIS; Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa; Delta Cafés; the Sonae Group; and MotaEngil.
"This is an innovative platform that aggregates statistical and legal data with the aim of simplifying access to national and international data on work, employment and social protection," says Manuel Carvalho da Silva, coordinator of CoLABOR and a former trade unionist. "It is the result of collaboration between higher education, large companies and the third sector, and is a contribution by civil society to reflection and a broader, more informed and more in-depth public debate."
According to Manuel Carvalho da Silva, DataLABOR is also "a contribution to the formulation of knowledge-based public policies". He highlights the platform's up-to-date technology and innovative data processing, as well as the simplicity with which people or institutions will be able to access and cross-reference reliable information from official sources.
"DataLABOR fills an existing gap in the availability of data on the world of work and social protection, linking data and legislation in order to inform public policies and support the decision-making of private entities and associations, in a logic of action and prospection," says Manuel Carvalho da Silva.
Eight members "on an equal footing"
In addition to providing access to official national and international databases, DataLABOR may in the future also be fed by research carried out by CoLABOR. This research will naturally focus on the areas of work and employment, social protection and the social and solidarity economy, with contributions from the scientific projects being developed at the Laboratory, some of them in partnership with its members.
But research can also be carried out at the request of the members themselves or external public, business and association bodies. CoLABOR already has a study on Angolan social protection in its portfolio. Requests are also awaited for studies on the socio-economic profile of certain regions of the country, or even of certain municipalities, so that public bodies can, for example, define policies to promote employment and job quality, or entities in the social and solidarity economy can characterize needs in their social responses, or even private entities can probe the demand for or qualifications of workers.
CoLABOR's members are three of the largest private employers in Portugal, some of the most representative entities in the social and solidarity sector and the research centers of three leading national and international universities. The principle of the Collaborative Laboratory is that everyone has the same institutional weight, contributing and working together, "on an equal footing", with common objectives.
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