Research Highlights 2009

Faculdade de Direito

1. Continuation and reinforcement of a Legislative Observatory, aiming at the study of the impact of legislation upon the social practice in the targeted areas.

2. Evaluation on legal system against discrimination based on state of health (under contract with national authorities for Health and Aids) started. By “ANTÍGONA – Livres e Iguais”.

3. Evaluation of implementation of Mediation in Criminal Law in Portugal (under contract with Ministry of Justice) – second phase.

4. Alternative Dispute Resolution – Expansion of UMAC (Unidade de Mediação e Acompanhamento de Conflitos de Consumo) activities.

5. Development of Intellectual Property Area of study and research: “CPIC” (Centro de Estudos em Propriedade Intelectual e Concorrência)

Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação

Some representative examples of the research developed at ISEGI, during 2009, are: in the field of statistics the research on spatial-temporal models (published in the International Journal of Climatology, Journal of Environmental Monitoring and International Journal of Wildland Fire) and the work on variance-based methods for estimation structural equation models (published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing).

In the information management field, the application of self-organizing maps within the context of geographic information science (published in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science and in Environment and Planning B); the development of information systems for sustainable growth (published in International Journal of Remote Sensing and Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences); and the developments on the effects of business intelligence systems on business processes (published on the Information Research).

During 2009 ISEGI started or continued to develop 8 fundamental research and 13 applied research projects. We would like to underline one large research project funded by the European Commission: the coordination of the SuGIK Project – Sustainable Geographic Information Knowledge Transfer for Postgraduate Education, 2008-2011; as well as one Project funded by the FCT and which involves the participation of ISEGI in the RISCOS Consortium, lead by the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC), in which ISEGI is vice-coordinator in the thematic area of “Risks for infrastructure systems” and which will run from 2009 to 2019.

Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica

The 192 papers published in ISI journals during 2009 span different areas of chemistry and biology; these papers reflect the high-quality research work at ITQB and contribute to the over 1,600 papers published in the last 10 years with a corresponding number of citations of 23,197 (h-index for this period is 57).

Adding to the 92 running research projects, the researchers' success in securing funds for their research was visible in the 41% approval rate in the 2008 FCT call; an ITQB project on biofuel cells was one of the four selected by the MIT-Portugal Program in the bioengineering focus area; a project involving ITQB/IBET researchers for preserving Portuguese flora was among the three projects selected for funding through the Biodiversity Fund from EDP.

ITQB researchers received many distinctions for their work presented at international scientific meetings. On a more individual note, Claudina Rodrigues Pousada was honoured at the FEBS Congress and was recognized with the Almofariz Award by the pharmaceutical sector; Helena Santos and Cecilia Arraiano became Members of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences.

Details of research highlights in 2009 can be found at www.itqb.unl.pt.

Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical

Research highlights in 2009 were related to tropical RD (malaria, leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, African trypanosomiasis e hepatitis) and scientific meetings and reports. A report on malaria pre elimination in Sao Tome and Principe (under STP/Taiwan coordination) was widely read, a 2nd meeting of the Iberian Malaria Platform (34 registered groups) took place in Madrid, and a CPLP-supported malaria network strategy of lusophone countries was further developed and strengthened.

Sequencing of the gene and construction of a 3D theoretical model of the protein disulfide isomerase from Plasmodium chabaudi as well as the localization of chabaupain-1 in Anopheles sp. The Portuguese National Leishmaniasis Observatory (ONLeish; www.onleish.org) conducted a national screening of canine leishmaniasis). IHMT co-organized the XI Iberian Congress on Parasitology. An invited editorial/review was published in the Official Journal of the International Society of Chemotherapy on the Institute´s work on the therapy of multi drug resistant TBd and funds were awarded by European Science Foundation to organize an International workshop on the subject.

DNA vaccine prototypes for Trypanosoma brucei were able to induce humoral and partial protective immune response in a murine model. Proteomics in human liver infected by hepatitis D virus was carried out. Two new World Health Organization publications (on migration of health personnel in Europe and on the health workforce situation in the African lusophone countries) were prepared. Our biostatisticians conducted research focused on latent class models in tropical health and mathematical modeling in infectious diseases. IHMT still maintains the only Associate Laboratory on Health Sciences and he largest number of expatriate PhD students registered at the UNL.

Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública

Em 2009, a ENSP dedicou-se particularmente a robustecer a sua investigação. Houve um aumento acentuado de número de publicações em revistas indexadas e do número de projectos em colaboração com outras entidades.

As suas áreas de investigação, no âmbito da saúde pública, continuaram a ser muito abrangentes, pertinentes e actuais: controlo da tuberculose, cessação tabágica, saúde e segurança, literacia e sistemas de informação em saúde, organização de cuidados de saúde primários, modelos de integração em saúde, análises de custo-efectividade de programas de saúde pública, resposta às ameaças pandémicas, contratualização em serviços de saúde, entre outros. Referem-se 2 exemplos: ECHO- European Collaboration for Healthcare Optimization (7 Programa Quadro) ; Research regarding the evaluation of care pathways for COPD and Proximal Femur Fracture patients in different European countries - European Pathway Association. .

No final de 2009, cerca de 30 docentes e investigadores da ENSP ( 16 dos quais doutorados) integraram o laboratório associado CMDT.LA, Centro de Malária e Doenças Tropicais (IHMT), agora em reestruturação.