NOVA IMS, as an Academic Unit of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, takes its vocation to contribute in a pioneering and leading way to the conversion of data into value ("From Data to Value") through Data Science and Analysis, by an integrated and properly articulated commitment to teaching, research, and third mission initiatives.

The successful evolution of NOVA IMS can also be followed through a careful analysis of the time evolution in about 30 KPIs, targeted for periodic monitoring, being in its broad majority indicators of the quality achieved in the different fields of NOVA IMS' intervention.

In order to fulfill its vocation, several quality-assurance and management mechanisms have been adopted at NOVA IMS, according to the different benchmarks used by global rating, accrediting, and ranking agencies. And it without forgetting in any case, what is genuinely central to the best higher education institutions and also in the journey of affirmation for the quality of NOVA IMS: the attraction of great students, teachers, and researchers, accompanied by support services provided by great professionals; a human community that through an agile, uncomplicated, vibrant, motivating environment, based on meritocracy and a strong internal cohesion, is encouraged to dream and fulfill dreams in a context of great intellectual and creative freedom. This is the strategic soul of quality at NOVA IMS; it explains the success achieved in the last decades and is the engine of its continued future development.

It is within this kind of context and framework that the NOVA Internal Quality Monitoring Evaluation System (NOVA SIMAQ) has been developed at UNL and its Academic Units, since the 2018/2019 school year, following its accordance with the standards for the internal quality assurance systems set by the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES).

Meritocracy is one of the core values of the organizational culture that characterize NOVA IMS, where the importance of proposing policies and recognizing merit measures has always been recognized through a set of actions that aim at permanently valuing the initiative, dedication, and results obtained by NOVA IMS (namely through the efforts of its students, employees, teachers, and partners).

In the pursuit of the policy of recognition of merit assumed as the central value of NOVA IMS, every year, an awards and diplomas ceremony (Commencement Ceremony) is held for different types of members of the NOVA IMS community. As a way to promote the commitment and quality of its teachers, researchers, employees, and Alumni, different types of acknowledgments are attributed, corresponding to the various dimensions of academic activity (Teaching, Research, Innovation), besides cases of lasting connection to NOVA IMS.

Additionally, all NOVA IMS employees and teachers perform their functions within frameworks that stimulate and recognize merit, through different types of evaluations, performance awards, and corresponding career progression systems.

The Quality Delegates, employees responsible for each service, are responsible for promoting the dissemination and implementation of Quality practices in the respective service, as well as ensuring that the section of the Procedures Manual relating to the respective service is updated.

The Institutional Research Office is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and sharing of NOVA IMS data relevant to quality assurance, management and planning, support to decision-making processes, and the operation of NOVA IMS.