The animation and (very) good mood contrasted with the tired faces and movements of the hundreds of biology students who were until the last one at the National Meeting of Biology Students (ENEB), which the University of Algarve (UAlg) hosted since last Friday until today, tuesday.
And no wonder: over five days, the Algarve organizers of the event promoted many initiatives, most of them oriented to knowledge, such as lectures and workshops, but also some that stimulated interaction.
In addition to scientific presentations, the 17th edition of ENEB also had a strong component to promote bio-entrepreneurship. Former students of UAlg, now entrepreneurs, gave their testimony, in the first person, namely in a «short-talk» promoted by the company spin off of the «Sparos» university, on the theme «Sparos Lda. – A business with science» and through a lecture by the co-founder of the «Flying Sharks» company João Correia.
During the event, around 30 workshops were promoted, some of which with field trips. An already intense program, which would justify the tired air of the participants on the last day, to which were added various evening and entertainment activities, such as gatherings, film screenings and, this Monday night, an arraial in Praia de Faro.
In addition to a positive balance, the closing of the meeting also served to deliver the prizes for the Photography Contest, under the theme "Persistence of Life". The awards were presented by the director of the Faculty of Science and Technology at UAlg Rui Cabral e Silva and by the Sul Informação, media partner official of the event and whose director Elisabete Rodrigues was one of the members of the jury.
The winners of this initiative, whose prizes were awarded by Zoomarine, were Pedro Lopes (1st) and Maria Soares (2nd).
ENEB also served to pass the testimony on the direction of ANEbio
At the end of the meeting, the president of ANEbio André Soares, who is also a member of the Nucleus of Biology Students of the University of Algarve (Nebua), who organized the event, highlighted the «sir work» that the initiative gave. A team effort that «lasted more than a year» and that coincided with a phase of restructuring of ANEbio, to which he was connected.
«After the work of José Seco and Diana Marques, in my tenure, we reached a point where we were able to take the next step and truly serve Biological Science students. There are truly spectacular projects in people's minds and there will be news soon», he launched.
The UAlg student gave his testimony to Rita Bordonhos, a student at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), in Lisbon, who lifted the veil a little about what the future will be. “On April 11th, we collected our legal person card. We're finally cool (laughs). We have many projects, many of them in partnership with the Order of Biologists, to create opportunities for students and recent graduates, as we know that only with a degree it is very difficult to do anything», said Rita Bordonhos.
"The idea is to create a platform that can provide everything that is opportunities for scholarships, support and increasingly increase responses to all biology students," he said.
The president of the Order of Biologists, who accompanied a large part of the event, but who ended up not being able to be at the closing, as he was giving «a class on genetic markers at the ISA», sent a written message, in which he highlighted the «high quality of this meeting".
«The level of quality is at a level that is difficult to overcome, so I congratulate the organizing committee», said José de Matos.
At the end of ENEB, the place where the next edition of the meeting will be held, the city of Braga, was announced, with students from the University of Minho taking on the task of organizing it.
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