The IHC’s application to the Latin American Council for Social Sciences (CLACSO), the largest network of social sciences in Latin America and the Caribbean, was approved by its Steering Committee and General Assembly at the beginning of May. Paula Godinho, one of the promoters of the IHC candidacy, classified this news as “fantastic”, emphasizing that it is a “giant step” towards the internationalisation of the IHC and “a great advance in the formats of decolonization of knowledge”.

CLACSO was created in 1967, is based in Argentina, in Buenos Aires, and integrates hundreds of research centres from all over the world. IHC members will be able, from now on, to integrate the transnational project teams and working groups promoted by the Council. Paula Godinho also predicts that “the IHC will receive more PhD students and post-doctoral researchers from Latin America”.

In addition to promoting several scientific meetings, CLACSO also awards grants, has an in-house publisher, promotes postgraduate training and courses and maintains a network of virtual libraries and a digital repository in open access, with more than 800 scientific journals of social sciences and humanities, as well as a multimedia archive.

IHC is the fifth national institution to be approved by the Council, joining the Center for Social Studies (University of Coimbra), the Center for Research and Studies in Sociology (ICSTE-IUL), the Center for Research and Intervention in Education (University of Porto), and the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development (Lusófona University).