CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research, together with UnIC – Cardiovascular Research Center, both based at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), are leading an unprecedented merger to form a new Research Unit.
RISE-Health was made official on January 17, as part of the Evaluation of the Multi-Year Funding Program for R&D Units of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
CINTESIS and UnIC are joined by MedInUP – Center for Pharmacological Research and Drug Innovation, based at ICBAS – School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Porto, and CICS-UBI – Health Sciences Research Centre, based at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Beira Interior (UBI).
According to the statement published on January 22, the coordinators of the four units agreed on this merge strategy, which will involve “management coordination and scientific complementarity” among around 500 doctorate researchers from eight higher education institutions.
This merge should result in “a natural increase in critical mass”, “greater multi- and interdisciplinary synergies”, a “more comprehensive scientific approach” and “an increase in territorial cohesion between the coastal and inland regions of the country”.
Based at FMUP, RISE-Health will have management centers in four organic units of the University of Porto (ICBAS, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Dental Medicine and Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences), in five other public universities (University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, University of Algarve, University of Aveiro, University of Beira Interior and University of Madeira) and in two private universities (Fernando Pessoa University and Portucalense University).
In all, the new Unit will bring together four of the country’s Medical Schools (FMUP, ICBAS, UBI’s Faculty of Health Sciences and UAlg’s Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences) and three Nursing Schools (Nursing School of Porto, Santa Maria Health School and IP Santarém Nursing School).
The statement is signed by Altamiro da Costa Pereira, coordinator of CINTESIS, Adelino Leite Moreira, coordinator of UnIC, Patrício Soares da Silva, coordinator of MedInUP, Luís Taborda Barata, coordinator of CICS-UBI, and Fernando Schmitt, future coordinator of RISE-Health.
More information here.