Sector(s)

Project Team

  • Client: ISPA — University Institute of Psychological, Social and Life Sciences
  • Development Partner: JAVALI

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Organizations Involved

Community contributions

Throughout the project, JAVALI shared technical improvements and reusable modules with the Drupal community, reinforcing open-source collaboration and sustainability.
Notable contributions include:

  • Enhancements to SIBS payment integration for Drupal Commerce.
  • Internal optimizations for multi-site governance using Domain.
  • Continuous advocacy of Drupal in higher education digital transformation.

About the client

ISPA — University Institute of Psychological, Social and Life Sciences is one of Portugal’s leading academic institutions in psychology, social sciences and life sciences.
With a strong commitment to research and innovation, ISPA serves thousands of students, teachers, researchers and administrative staff. 
Its digital environment has evolved over more than a decade to support academic operations, internal communication and community engagement.
 

Describe the project (goals, requirements and outcome)

Goals

  • Unify dispersed tools and processes across departments.
  • Update legacy platforms (Drupal 6 and 7) without losing data or critical features.
  • Integrate external academic, financial and document-management systems.
  • Ensure visual and terminological coherence across all digital channels.
  • Guarantee continuous evolution aligned with institutional change.

Requirements

  • A phased, compatibility-first approach to migrations and redesign.
  • Interoperability with ESCA and other institutional systems.
  • Governance that balances central standards with departmental autonomy.
  • A design that supports long-term maintainability and consistency.

Outcome

A unified Drupal ecosystem connecting ISPA’s institutional services:

  • ISPADigital intranet centralizing institutional processes with ESCA integration, workflows, forms and reporting.
  • ISPA Store, built on Drupal Commerce, for products, events and payments with direct invoicing integration.
  • Institutional microsites, using Domain, for editorial autonomy with a coherent brand (ISPA Clinic and ISPA Training).
  • ISPA Job Portal, based on UPJobs by JAVALI, linking students and alumni to the job market.

The ecosystem is now a living, scalable infrastructure that grows without compromising stability, security or institutional coherence.

Why Drupal was chosen

The institution needed a unified and flexible platform to modernize its fragmented web ecosystem, which included multiple legacy websites and disconnected systems.
Drupal was chosen for its scalability, security, and open-source flexibility, allowing ISPA to migrate from Drupal 6 to Drupal 10 progressively — without losing data, functionality, or performance.
The platform’s API-first architecture, multi-site management and active community support made it the ideal choice for a long-term institutional strategy focused on sustainability and interoperability.

preview ISPA's Ecosystem

Technical Specifications

Key modules/theme/distribution used: