FCT and AICIB launch "Science 4 COVID-19" portal

FCT and the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (AICIB) launched this Friday, April 3, the portal Science 4 COVID-19in partnership with the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, health authorities and public and private scientific research institutions, with the aim of being another tool in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Science 4 COVID-19 consists of a platform that brings together ideas, publications and ongoing actions, the identification of available installed capacity and research groups, providing means of online collaborative work on these elements, as well as mechanisms for direct communication between users with the aim of promoting interaction and collaboration between all.

The ideas, actions and publications submitted are previously validated by a technical and scientific validation committee made up of Catarina Oliveira (President of the AICIB Board of Directors), Patrícia Calado (Member of the AICIB Board of Directors), Cristina Abreu Santos (Member of the Board of Directors of the Ricardo Jorge Institute) and Nuno Feixa Rodrigues (Member of the FCT Board of Directors), using whenever necessary entities of recognized scientific and professional merit to support the analysis and framing of the initiatives submitted in the various specific areas of application.

This digital platform compiles resources available for use in Research and Development (R&D) projects and activities aimed at combating the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus, in line with the National Disease Preparedness and Response Plan of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), as well as the strategies of other European and international health authorities.

The portal brings together a broad spectrum of initiatives from the Portuguese scientific community, ranging from social and solidarity actions, such as identifying and providing health professionals with personal protective equipment; through engineering, such as the adaptation, development and manufacture of various ventilator models; to the clinical and biomedical area, such as new coronavirus screening protocols; to communication, such as the creation of information and educational materials on coronavirus to disseminate in the PALOP countries.

The Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, signed the foreword to the Science 4 COVID-19 portal, stressing that in the response to the current epidemiological situation "it is important to mobilize researchers and their institutions with the necessary capacity to effectively implement the efforts underway, as well as to mobilize other national scientific and technological institutes, companies and health technicians to ensure the effective implementation of the various actions".