Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation 2025 Prize awarded to two projects

The 2025 edition of the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation Award, which is the result of a partnership between the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation (FBA), has distinguished two projects in the area of conservation, restoration and monitoring of biodiversity in Portugal, selected after evaluating the 33 applications received.

First place was awarded to the project "From Active to Inactive: Biodiversity and functional Trends of deep-sea Hydrothermal vents- Development of tools for vulnerable marine ecosystem conservation", which will receive funding of €244,378.00 and whose Principal Investigator, Ana Colaço, is from the University of the Azores. This project addresses urgent gaps in knowledge of the ecology of seabed hydrothermal vents, in line with Portugal's ocean governance commitments.

In second place was the project "Marine forest restoration in exposed coastal waters; a pipeline linking novel transplant methodologies, integrated aquaculture and stakeholders". The funding awarded is €250,000.00 and the lead researcher, Gareth Anthony Pearson, is from the University of the Algarve's Marine Sciences Center. The main challenge of this project is the restoration of marine macroalgae forests, where current methods have been unsuccessful.

The financial support to be granted to the two winning projects totals €494,378.00 and each of the Foundations will fund 50% of the total prize.

The partnership between the FBA and the FCT was established through Regulation no. 848/2023, published in the Diário da República, 2nd Series on August 3, 2023, and aims to provide financial support for "Conservation, restoration and monitoring of biodiversity in Portugal" projects up to a total amount of five hundred thousand euros.