The signing of the protocol between the Government of the Azores, through the Regional Directorate for Youth, and the University of the Azores for the implementation of the Azores Youth Observatory took place at the Regional Civil Engineering Laboratory on late Monday morning. 
The Azores Youth Centre is an informal unit, established within the Regional Directorate for Youth, with the purpose to support the management of youth public policies. Moreover, this unit also aims to collect, process and disseminate the available information on the general problem of youth; develop studies in collaboration with scientific and academic institutions with competence in the matter to support, guide and improve Youth public policies; prepare for publication the activities developed by the Azores Youth Observatory; promote workshops, seminars and discussions on the phenomena associated to youth and ensure the connection of the Observatory with other similar national foreign institutions. “Bearing in mind the need to do better, we have decided to establish the Azores Youth Observatory, following the latest European trends, such the Catalan Youth Observatory,” stated Bruno Pacheco during the presentation of this project.
The Azores Youth Observatory will be coordinated by the Regional Director for Youth and the allocation of human resources for this project will be assured by the Regional Directorate and the Social Studies Centre of the University of the Azores.
The University of the Azores will be the main partner in the development of researches notwithstanding the possibility of establishing partnerships with other institutions in order to conduct specific studies, particularly with other higher education institutions, youth associations, among others. According to the Regional Director for Youth, “this mechanism could have been created only with the public administration resources. However, as it is an observatory that will deal with issues of transverse nature, such as employment, housing and entrepreneurship, we believe that we should have a partner to endow us with specific skills that will allow us to accomplish the disseminated goals.”
Furthermore, the Youth Centre intends to implement scientific dynamic in the conduction of studies on the different dimensions of the reality of Azorean youth by consolidating works already started or the release of new research areas.
“The creation of the Azores Youth Observatory has been expected since the beginning of this legislative period and with the signing of the protocol we have taken the first step,” stated the Regional Director for Youth.
Finally, Bruno Pacheco announced that a microsite will be specifically created for the Azores Youth Observatory, where all completed studies and research projects will be made available online.