Universidade Portucalense starts 2024 with the establishment of a new hub of the CINTESIS research unit, named CINTESIS.UPT. The establishment of CINTESIS.UPT stems from the partnership Universidade Portucalense entered into with CINTESIS-Centre for Health Technology and Services Research, and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto.
CINTESIS is a multidisciplinary research centre, bringing together several hundreds of researchers in 24 research groups. Its mission is to promote innovation in health, and it was rated Very Good in the latest evaluation round conducted by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.
CINTESIS.UPT is created with the resources from the former Instituto Portucalense de Psicologia (I2P), integrating 12 researchers, and is concerned with translational research issues focusing on mental health. Such integration was only made possible thanks to the high quality of the work conducted by Universidade Portucalense’s researchers, in terms of scientific production, attraction of external financing, and contribution to advanced training.
On 17 January, CINTESIS, UnIC (also from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto), MedInUP (from the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences), and CICS-UBI (from the University of Beira Interior) submitted a joint application to the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia’s R&D unit evaluation programme, under the name RISE-HEALTH. This new unit, which will begin operating in 2025 after the FCT evaluation has been finalised, aims to become an example of high-level research, sustainable and with a strong interconnection between teaching and research, counting on Universidade Portucalense as one of its management centres.
The establishment of CINTESIS.UPT is another step forward in the implementation of Universidade Portucalense’s institutional strategy, with a view to creating conditions for national and international affirmation of the research conducted at the University. This partnership follows the trend of developing knowledge creation contexts able to concentrate and share resources in an interdisciplinary setting that generates added value to society at large. CINTESIS.UPT thus becomes the second hub of an interinstitutional research unit to be established in Universidade Portucalense, following the establishment of CIAUD-UPT in 2022, both of them rated Very Good by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.
