--- title: "A day in the life of a collaborative lab - AlmaScience" description: "From ateliers to scientific societies, collaboration has always powered discovery. A day inside AlmaScience's green tech lab near Lisbon." url: "https://almascience.pt/news/thought-piece/almascience-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-collaborative-lab" date: "2026-10-16T06:11:23+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- # News ![AlmaScience: A day in the life of a collaborative lab]() ## AlmaScience: A day in the life of a collaborative lab Claudine Boeglin, Rui Braz [Thought Piece](https://almascience.pt/news/thought-piece) 17 September 2025 8 minutes read - [ ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Falmascience.pt%2Fnews%2Fthought-piece%2Falmascience-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-collaborative-lab "Facebook") - [ ](https://twitter.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Falmascience.pt%2Fnews%2Fthought-piece%2Falmascience-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-collaborative-lab&text=AlmaScience%3A+A+day+in+the+life+of+a+collaborative+lab "X (formerly Twitter)") - [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Falmascience.pt%2Fnews%2Fthought-piece%2Falmascience-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-collaborative-lab&title=AlmaScience%3A+A+day+in+the+life+of+a+collaborative+lab "LinkedIn") From ateliers and brotherhoods to scientific societies and navigation charts, collaboration has always powered discovery and innovation. Today, AlmaScience brings that genuine spirit into its Portuguese green tech lab, where collective efforts for sustainable innovations form the engine behind its ever-greater successes. A day at the R&D green CoLab on Lisbon’s South Shore feels like a beehive and, in retrospect, honors the great spirits that enthralled collaboration at the roots of various research areas in past eras. Medicine, navigation, construction, parenthood, team sports, education, scientific research, music ensembles, agriculture, emergency response, or filmmaking would not be the same without the collaborative factor rooted in each of these practices. The “Co” buzzword – inseparable from the sharing economy – may seem like a recent invention, but the underlying principle that pools resources for mutual benefit has much deeper historical roots. ### Why CoLabs? The sharing economy didn’t invent co-living, co-working, or co-labs; it simply digitized them, making them scalable and instantly connectable. But the CoLab model isn’t an invention out of nowhere either: it’s the modern institutional form of a practice humanity has always relied on. At their best, CoLabs cut costs, pool expertise, and accelerate knowledge transfer across disciplines. They echo ateliers, brotherhoods, societies, and navigators, collective infrastructures designed to achieve what individuals could not, or at least not with the same impact. At AlmaScience, the collaborative ethos isn’t abstract – it plays out every day. Projects unfold side by side, researchers pitch to each other and weigh in from communications, business, or design. Whiteboards capture the vibrancy of the debates, disciplines collide constructively, and milestones are shared across teams. ### The Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem Collaboration at AlmaScience goes beyond its internal practices that bring out the best of its world-class researchers and product and business teams – it extends to all of AlmaScience’s associates, resulting in the [Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem](https://almascience.pt/sustainable-innovation-ecosystem). The Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem is the result of a collaborative partnership between AlmaScience CoLab and stakeholders within the Portuguese cellulose and paper ecosystem. This unique model brings together nine strategic associates, each contributing specialized expertise and resources to create a dynamic innovation environment. From NOVA.ID FCT's cutting-edge research in functional materials to The Navigator Company's global leadership in pulp and paper markets, and from Clara Saúde's medical expertise to INCM's security solutions, the ecosystem represents a comprehensive value chain approach to sustainable innovation. By harnessing the expertise, skills, and resources of our associates, the Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem cultivates and mobilizes cutting-edge innovations in smart and sustainable paper-based technologies. The ecosystem's collaborative structure enables rapid transformation of research concepts into market-ready solutions across six key focus areas: - Smart Packaging - Paper-based electronics - Printed RFID solutions - Smart Retail - Sustainable IoT devices - Energy harvesting materials This approach has already yielded tangible results, including the creation of AlmaScience's first spin-off, [PaperWeight AI](https://almascience.pt/news/press-release/almascience-presents-paperweight-ai-to-revolutionize-technology-in-the-retail-sector), and the development of innovative solutions like [PetriTag®](https://almascience.pt/news/latest/petritag-the-sustainable-paper-based-portable-bacterial-detector-for-the-fish-transport-system) for bacterial contamination detection and [GELA](https://almascience.pt/news/latest/hello-sunshine-fancy-a-cool-drink)'s rapid cooling technology. Through this network, AlmaScience demonstrates how genuine collaboration can accelerate the journey from laboratory innovation to real-world application, creating both economic value and environmental benefits. ### The challenge in COCOA If CoLabs are already vital, how will COCOA – an acronym for *Co-Planning and Co-Execute with AI Agents* – expand their role? Will the next frontier of collaboration mean not just pooling human talent, but integrating AI as a partner in multi-step, shared execution? That too is timely and already in practice in a variety of projects by AlmaScience. AI is poised to radically reshape green tech collaboration, enabling more intelligent, data-driven approaches in sectors from renewable energy and smart grids to resource management and conservation. Through advanced analytics and automation, AI accelerates the adoption of sustainable solutions, optimizes energy systems, improves battery technology, and makes climate models more accurate. Yet, the massive computing power demanded by data centers and the environmental costs of AI cannot be ignored. Recent studies highlight how AI-driven data centers are straining power grids and potentially doubling global electricity consumption and emissions by 2030, with additional challenges in water use, rare earth mining, and e-waste. Read more on the issue: “[America's power grid is no match for the AI data center boom](https://qz.com/ai-data-center-boom-us-power-grid-struggles)” (Qz.com, August 18, 2025). ### The role of collaboration and ethos This very tension between AI-fueled innovation and its ecological cost is precisely why robust scientific collaboration and a genuine ethical framework are essential for responsible technology development. Scientific collaborations gather diverse minds and disciplines, while ethical engagement requires involving not just technologists but also environmental scientists, local communities, and policymakers, ensuring new AI systems account for both innovation and sustainability from the outset. Collaborative efforts are crucial for creating standards on transparency, accountability, and responsible deployment. After all, true innovation comes when teams make the effort to design technology with positive ecological goals in mind, considering algorithmic bias, energy efficiency, resource management, and equitable distribution of benefits. ### Why collaboration matters more than ever In Setúbal, a port city nestled within the Arrábida Park, Casa do Corpo Santo and Baroque Museum stand as a tribute to fraternity. This brotherhood, established in the 14th century, honors the “Confraria do Corpo Santo”, a guild of fishermen, sailors, and seafarers dedicated to supporting the widows and orphans of its members. Meanwhile, in Lisbon, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation recently hosted a free performance of Pierre Boulez’s *Pli selon Pli*. Composed between 1957 and 1962, this monumental piece showcases the heights of artistic creativity and would not exist without the collective talent of an orchestra comprised at times of close to 60 multidisciplinary members. Across eras, human collaboration remains at the heart of progress. From the workshops, brotherhoods, and societies of history to contemporary organizations like AlmaScience, genuine advancement arises when ideas are openly shared, challenged, and jointly refined. Collaboration continues to be the essential force driving innovation and building a better future together. While COCOA defines the relationship between humans and AI, collaboration as a mindset invites us to constantly monitor our relationship to technology and our daily communication tools. Technology or AI alone cannot deliver sustainable green tech. Only with collaborative science and shared ethical values can society continually balance benefits and damages, guiding AI towards actual solutions for – and not contributors to – ecological challenges. This means fostering interdisciplinary work, transparent regulation, inclusion of diverse stakeholder voices, and a commitment across sectors to responsible innovation with clear climate and community gains. ### Extra: A few highlights of collective practice **Art movements and shared ateliers.** Early 20th-century European and Russian movements thrived on shared studios where painters, sculptors, designers, and essayists exchanged ideas and techniques, with intertwined influences. The beginnings of the **Dada movement** in Paris (1920s), after first appearing in Zurich (1916) and spreading to Berlin and New York, were propelled by central figures like Tristan Tzara, André Breton, Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray. They co-hosted noisy soirées, absurd poetry readings, and satirical attacks on the art establishment. Born in World War I, Dada was essentially a protest against violence and nationalism, rejecting logic and traditional aesthetics altogether. Growing out of Paris Dada, **Surrealism** drew on Freudian psychoanalysis, expressing the unconscious mind as a source of truth and creativity. These movements ignited from the cross-pollination of ideas among international artists who gathered in mostly Montmartre, seeded from the diversity of voices, geographies, and experimental performances that marked the early years of modern art. **Photographers’ brotherhoods.** With photography still costly in the 19th century, brotherhoods formed to share equipment, darkrooms, and techniques. In Britain, the Linked Ring Brotherhood (1892) united Alfred Horsley Hinton and George Davison, influencing Pictorialism. Earlier, itinerant photographers in rural America or colonial territories often traveled in pairs, splitting costs and carrying each other’s gear. **Scientific societies.** Groups like the Royal Society (1660) and 19th-century naturalist clubs pooled specimens and observations to build collective knowledge. They offered infrastructure that individual scientists lacked: libraries, specimen cabinets, and peer critique. They standardized methods, helped form modern disciplines, and laid the groundwork for international projects like the International Geophysical Year (1957–58) and today’s open science initiatives. **Exploration.** The Portuguese Discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries depended on vast collaborative networks. Navigation brought together shipbuilders, cartographers, astronomers, sailors, traders, and chroniclers. Caravels were designed for oceanic voyages, maps updated with every journey, and astronomical instruments like the astrolabe and quadrant refined navigation. Local knowledge, from West Africa to the Indian Ocean, shaped European understanding of geography. This web of people and expertise produced: - First-hand observations from the Atlantic to Asia. - A global mental map integrating European, African, and Asian knowledge. - Data on currents and winds that informed meteorology and cartography. - The first truly global trade networks, with Lisbon as a cosmopolitan hub. - [ Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem ](https://almascience.pt/component/tags/tag/sustainable-innovation-ecosystem) - [ Innovation ](https://almascience.pt/component/tags/tag/innovation) ### Continue reading... [ ![Cold in half the time: inside the GELA pilot with Super Bock Group]() ](https://almascience.pt/news/case-study/cold-in-half-the-time)#### [ Cold in half the time: inside the GELA pilot with Super Bock Group ](https://almascience.pt/news/case-study/cold-in-half-the-time) 22 September 2026 [ ![Porto Business School study identifies AlmaScience as an example of a CoLAB oriented toward corporate technological innovation]() ](https://almascience.pt/news/press-release/porto-business-school-study-identifies-almascience-as-an-example-of-a-colab)#### [ Porto Business School study identifies AlmaScience as an example of a CoLAB oriented toward corporate technological innovation ](https://almascience.pt/news/press-release/porto-business-school-study-identifies-almascience-as-an-example-of-a-colab) 27 May 2026 ## Schema ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://almascience.pt" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "News", "item": "https://almascience.pt/news" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Thought Piece", "item": "https://almascience.pt/news/thought-piece" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "AlmaScience: A day in the life of a collaborative lab", "item": "https://almascience.pt/news/thought-piece/almascience-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-collaborative-lab" } ] } ``` ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://almascience.pt/news/thought-piece/almascience-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-collaborative-lab" }, "headline": "AlmaScience: A day in the life of a collaborative lab", "description": "From ateliers and brotherhoods to scientific societies and navigation charts, collaboration has always powered discovery and innovation. 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