CEHR participates in the research structure of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), namely CARE - CAtolica REsearch and its work is part of the priority areas defined by UCP in its strategy of R&D for this new period: “Memory, Change, and Innovation”. The Unit participates in the life of the recently created UCP´s Instituto de Estudos de Religião, in which scientific council the CEHR´s director has a place, and it benefits from the national dimension of the University.

This affiliation does not jeopardize the Unit´s inter-institutional collaborative dimension; on the contrary, it enhances it, given the close articulation of UCP with the state public universities, namely through its participation in the Council of Rectors of the Portuguese Universities (Conselho de Reitores das Universidades Portuguesas - CRUP). The association of a significant number of integrated researchers from other national and foreign units with CEHR translates that same policy of institutional articulation and collaboration.

The existence, since 2011, of a CEHR branch in Porto, besides the headquarters in Lisbon, allows for a more efficient articulation between researchers, in the north and in the south, as for a more efficient relationship with the partner institutions.

The collaborative nature of the work developed by CEHR thus translates in a continuous practice of articulation with units from other universities and individual researchers, whom it integrates in its activities and levels of responsibility, enhancing the national dimension and singular character of the Unit in the Portuguese scientific system, complying with its vocation as a project leader in the specialized area of religious history. In the period of 2018-22, we foresee the possibility to formalize new partnership deals with some research units with which we collaborate actively.