Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation Award 2025 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), recognized 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 €244,378.00 in funding. The lead researcher, Ana Colaço, is from the University of the Azores. This project addresses urgent gaps in knowledge about the ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, in line with Portugal's ocean governance commitments.

Second place went to the project“Marine forest restoration in exposed coastal waters; a pipeline linking novel transplant methodologies, integrated aquaculture, and stakeholders.” The funding allocated is €250,000.00 and the Principal Investigator, Gareth Anthony Pearson, belongs to the Marine Science Center at the University of Algarve. The main challenge of this project is the restoration of marine macroalgae forests, for which current methods have not been successful.

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

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