The “Science 4 COVID-19” portal was launched this Friday, April 3, by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation Agency (AICIB), in partnership with the Institute National Health Doctor Ricardo Jorge, health authorities and scientific research institutions, public and private.
It is a portal that brings together ideas, publications and ongoing actions, 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 in order to promote the interaction and collaboration between everyone.
The ideas, actions and publications submitted are previously validated by a Technical and Scientific Validation Committee constituted by Catarina Oliveira (Chairman 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), resorting, whenever necessary, to entities of recognized scientific and professional merit to support the analysis and framing of the initiatives submitted in the various specific areas of application.
“Science 4 COVID-19” compiles resources available for use in Research and Development (R&D) projects and activities aimed at combating the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in line with the Management's National Plan for Disease Preparedness and Response General Health (DGS), as well as the strategies of other European and international health authorities.
The portal brings together a wide spectrum of initiatives from the Portuguese scientific community, ranging from social and solidarity actions, such as the identification and availability of personal protection material for health professionals; passing through engineering, such as the adaptation, development and manufacture of different models of fans; to the clinical and biomedical area, such as new coronavirus screening protocols; to communication, such as the creation of informative and educational materials about Coronavirus to disseminate in the PALOP.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education stressed that, «to respond to the epidemiological situation caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease, as well as to leverage new technological-based economic activities in Portugal».
To this end, Minister Manuel Heitor reinforces that “it is important to mobilize researchers and their institutions with the necessary capacity to effectively implement the ongoing efforts, as well as to mobilize other national scientific and technological institutes, companies and health technicians to ensure the effective implementation of the various actions".
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