On a six-day trip to Portugal, the president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Nísia Trindade Lima, was received by 14 Portuguese authorities, including three ministers, two rectors, an ambassador, and directors and presidents of institutions involving health, education, technology, and innovation, to deepen and structure inter-institutional cooperation between Fiocruz and Portuguese organizations. The trip took place between the last week of April and the first week of May this year.
The Fiocruz delegation visited the universities of Aveiro and Minho, the Center for Product Engineering and Development (CeiiA), the São João Hospital, the 4LifeLab hub, the General Direction of Health, the Brazilian Embassy in Portugal, the National Public Health School (ENSP), the Dr. Ricardo Jorge Health Institute (INSA), the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), the Infarmed - National Authority of Medicines and Health Products, and the ministries of Foreign Affairs; Science, Technology and College Education; and Health.
In Aveiro, a partnership in an international platform
Aveiro was the first city to welcome the Foundation’s delegation, on Wednesday, April 27. Lima was welcomed by the rector, professor Paulo Jorge Ferreira, and by the vice-rector, João Filipe Veloso, to sign the addendum to a 2021 agreement, for the creation of the International Platform for Science, Technology, and Innovation in Health.
As the agreement was being signed, Lima emphasized the reason for the visit: “The goal is to expand all fields of actuation of sciences, technology, innovation, and education. I would like to emphasize once again how important this cooperation is for us. Brazil and Portugal have in common the articulation of these scientific fields articulated with their universal health services, and we will be able to mutually develop more and better actions.”
The Fiocruz delegation visited the Research Unit, the Research Center for Ceramic and Composite Materials at the University of Aveiro (Ciceco), and the Biomedicine Institute (Ibimed). The visit included the Fiocruz space within the PCI - Creative Science Park, an innovation hub that includes the International Platform for Science, Technology and Innovation in Health (PICTIS), the starting and anchoring point for innovation projects in various areas of knowledge and technologies for health. PICTIS envisions the assembly of an International Center for Technological Development and Innovation in Health with Fiocruz and the University of Aveiro as its leading institutions. While anchored in Europe, within the PCI - Creative Science Park of Aveiro, as an innovation hub composed of six Sectorial Laboratories (SecLabs), this Platform promotes the development of new processes, products, and services technologies, with special attention to the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS-Brazil) and the National Health Service of Portugal (SNS-Portugal), both of which will often serve as testbeds for innovation applied to health, regarding the various supporting countries.
As an innovative mechanism for international cooperation, it brings into reality the Innovation Policy of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Strategic Plan of the University of Aveiro (UA).
The official visit counted with other important highlights, as described on Fiocruz's website. More information about PICTIS can be found on the UA's website (in Portuguese).