XpanDH is a CSA aiming at mobilizing and building capacity in individuals and organisations to create, adapt and explore purposeful use of interoperable digital health solutions based on a shared adoption of the European Electronic Health Records Exchange format (EEHRxF) across Europe. This pan-European effort will use a “network-of-networks” approach ensuring that digital health actors are motivated and supported by tailored guidance and real examples to help early adopters to advance to the concrete use of EEHRxF embedded digital health solutions to add value to health and care and promote Personal and European Health Data Spaces. XpanDH pursues the main goal of maturing and accelerating a sustainable and scalable interoperability environment for digital health innovations based on the EEHRxF, around 5 Goals: 1) To develop robust technical specifications and resources for the EEHRxF building; 2) To establish the X-Bundle Readiness model; 3) To verify the usefulness of the X-Bundle in real-world with a set of early adopters grouped under selected adoption domains; 4) To mature a pan-European digital health ecosystem of solution providers and end-users, 5) To develop a framework for sustainable ecosystem. The consortium will thrive on past and ongoing eHealth interoperability projects and services, and particularly on the X-eHealth and DigitalHealthEurope projects recommendations, through digital health data activism and strong patient engagement. It brings together 26 Digital Health Actors under a co-creation and co-implementation concept, supported by a Policy Board (linking to Governments and the eHealth Network). To expand its impact, 10 XpandDH networks of hundreds of health stakeholders will be nurtured to form a vibrant pan-European (Digital) Health space converging on common, usable, and reliable tools for real interoperable services that adoption of the EEHRxF and enhance healthcare cooperation for better health towards a European Health Union.

Several studies have shown evidences of psychological suffering among the younger generations and in particular in university students. The context of the pandemia COVID-19 has generated many more challenges, with increased impacts on this group. The resilient@uni project brings together a group of psychologists from different specialty fields (e.g., social, educational and clinical psychology) to explore the mental and physical health of this population, identifying potential risk and protective factors, at different levels, from intra-individual variables to social contexts. These results are aimed to inform appropriate intervention programs and policies to tackle this issue. This project was conducted in collaboration with students: Catarina Caseiro Guilherme Manica Joana Maciel Ricardo Marques Joana de Moraes

The EU has used the Strategic Energy Technology Plan to transfer power to consumers, by decentralising the energy ecosystem by establishing “100 positive energy districts by 2025 and 80% of electricity consumption to be managed by consumers in 4 out of 5 households”. The SMART-BEEjS recognises that this requires the systemic synergy of the different stakeholders, balancing attention towards technological and policy oriented drivers, citizens and society needs, providers and technology capabilities and value generation system synergies in order to deliver the transition without leaving large parts of the population behind. Smart-BEEjS covers all angles of this eco-system, to train a generation of transformative and influential champions in policy design, techno-economic planning and business model innovation in the energy and efficiency sectors, mindful of the personal and social dimensions, as well as the nexus of interrelation between stakeholders in energy generation, efficiency and management. 

Os sacos de plástico, em conjunto com as garrafas de plástico, constituem 70% dos resíduos que se acumulam nos mares, tendo impactes negativos nos ecossistemas marinhos, na economia e no turismo local. Em Portugal, a Lei que cria a contribuição sobre os sacos de plástico leves é a Lei n.º 82-D/2014, de 31 de dezembro, que aprova a Reforma da Fiscalidade Verde. A lei entrou em vigor no dia 1 de janeiro de 2015, tendo os produtores, importadores e adquirentes intracomunitários de sacos de plástico leves passado a cobrar a contribuição a distribuidores, retalhistas e comerciantes a partir de 31de janeiro de 2015, e os consumidores finais a pagar a contribuição a partir do dia 15 de fevereiro de 2015. O valor da contribuição sobre os sacos de plástico leves é de 0,08 €, acrescido do IVA à taxa legal em vigor (23%), por cada saco de plástico. No momento em que estão para se completar três anos da entrada em vigor da lei importa avaliar os seus impactes na sociedade, particularmente no âmbito económico e psicossocial.

A promoção do investimento das empresas na I&D, o desenvolvimento de ligações e sinergias entre empresas, centros de investigação e desenvolvimento e o setor do ensino superior, em especial a promoção do investimento no desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços, na transferência de tecnologia, na inovação social, na ecoinovação, em aplicações de interesse público, no estímulo da procura, em redes, clusters e na inovação aberta através de especialização inteligente, e o apoio à investigação tecnológica e aplicada, linhas-piloto, ações de validação precoce dos produtos, capacidades avançadas de produção e primeira produção, em especial no que toca às tecnologias facilitadoras essenciais, e à difusão de tecnologias de interesse geral 

 Information System (IS) offers much promise to improve information management for physiotherapists. However, the key factor for success of healthcare information system implementation and adoption is engagement of end-user. TailorPhy project aims to develop, apply and evaluate a system of information whose configuration can be tailored to measure the patient’s balance and functional movements during their physiotherapy sessions. The tailored information system, proposed in this project, enable to non-invasively/unobtrusively measure balance and movements as well as to improve the effectiveness of physiotherapy based on serious game and augmented reality.       Wireless body sensor network (WSN) will be developed for better balance and movements’ characterization. The system may improve the effectiveness of physiotherapy and enable measuring additional constructs to enhance more comprehensive clinical reasoning processes (i.e., motor control, determinants for behavioral change and patient engagement).

The Centre for Psychological Research and Social Intervention in ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, is one of the partners in "Inherit", an international project that was awarded in August 6 million euros of European funds Horizon 2020 to study good practices to simultaneously defend health and the environment. The consortium is led by the non-governmental Belgian organization EuroHealthNet and has the scientific coordination of University College London, where Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and the public health is a worldwide reference in the field of health inequalities. The project is coordinated in CIS-IUL by the researcher Sibila Marques and Prof. Maria Luisa Lima and researchers Cristina Godinho and Sylvia Luis are part of the team.It is a four-year project that will study European experiences that promote the health of communities and at the same time are environmentally sustainable. The Re-Food movement, launched in the Lisbon area, and social gardens that bloom throughout Portugal are some of the most interesting cases considered to be studied and replicated in other countries.

The ADAP-MED strives to contribute to the European and national efforts in favour to adaptation of coastal zones to the effects of climate and global change, by creating a breakthrough on adaptation decision making practices, in particular by better taking account of vulnerability assessments and their uncertainties. Stakeholders will be associated to the project right at the beginning, taking advantage of the current responsibilities of the partners in providing them support for coastal management and risk prevention.

The general aim of SIforAGE project will be to strengthen the cooperation mechanisms and tools among the stakeholders working along the value chain of active and healthy ageing, with the aim of improving the performance of the European Union competitiveness and growth, through research and innovative products for more and better lives. The objective is change minds and attitudes for a new vision of ageing. This new way of understanding ageing has been embraced under the concept of “active and healthy ageing” (AHA), as an inclusive term to framework the transformation of ageing vision. The specific objectives addressed in the project will be: 1. To develop the supporting tools and mechanisms for the Social Innovation Incubator on AHA 2. To engage and empower society and civil society organisations in research on AHA. 3. To introduce evidence-based policymaking, through training activities with policymakers, to address future shaping of ageing research programmes and funding schemes 4. To raise awareness among the scientific community on the importance of social responsibility and ethics in ageing research, and offer practical guidance on how to address them. 5. To analyse and improve the existing mechanisms for accessing the market of innovative products and solutions for older people 6. To actively involve the wide range of stakeholders of the value chain and spread knowledge generated along the project duration The consortium involved in the project is compounded of 20 different partners at EU and International level, representing a remarkable well-balanced consortium with complementary backgrounds and expertise and representing different stakeholders along the value chain of ageing research, from universities, civil society organisations, final users groups, think tanks, public administrations, technology research centers and companies.

Focusing on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, an EU-funded project has provided guidelines for communicating food risk in the digital age. Recent incidents such as the German Escherichia coli outbreak have revealed the growing power of online media to dictate the conversation around food risk. Coupled with the often complex nature of food risk communication, it is clear that communicators need new tools to communicate food risk effectively.The purpose of the EU-funded FOODRISC project was to map the networks and information sources that are used to spread information on food risks. In particular, the team has examined the potential of social media, with a view to helping risk communicators make better use of these platforms. FOODRISC first reviewed the role of social media during recent food crises such as the 2011 E. coli outbreak and the horse meat scandal. Researchers found that social media has rapidly come to dominate the conversation around food risk.An online data collecting tool developed during FOODRISC, called VizzataTM, has proved useful in gauging consumer reactions to various types of content. Using VizzataTM, researchers showed that during the horse meat scandal, consumers were mainly concerned that the labels did not match the contents of the products.Monitoring online activity has provided similar insights into the perception of other food-related issues, such as genetic modification and animal cloning.Lastly, FOODRISC scientists constructed a freely available online toolkit, or guide, for food risk communication. This will help to promote coherent and scientifically accurate food risk communication via social media channels.Online communication has a vital role to play in ensuring food safety, a research priority of the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for research and innovation. FOODRISC has provided the tools to make sure that this communication is accurate, balanced and effective.

More and more human beings experience in their lives persistent pain for months or years, not necessarily associated with any kind of injury or disease. International epidemiological data shows that an average of 35,5% persons experience chronic pain (CP). Moreover, 11% of adults experience severe and incapacitating CP. War against pain has a relatively recent international and national history. In Portugal, only in the last decade efforts have been made to overcome the under developments in such area of research. Nevertheless, a lot of work is left undone. In fact, pain has been one of the most neglected topics of research in the history of medicine. It was only after the Gate Theory (Melzack & Wall, 1965) that pain, traditionally seen as a linear and direct response to noxious stimuli, became conceived as a biopsychosocial phenomenon. Sex and gender studies on pain experiences are a field of research that clearly look for integrating psychological and social factors in accounting for pain experiences. Such was the general main contribution of this project. Starting from evidence that pointed to sex-related differences in pain, this project bridged a gap between two distinct lines of research which seldom crossed: 1) control-related beliefs and coping literature, which is predominantly individualistic and psychological  and 2) gender studies, which add a sociological and psychosocial perspective. The project started with a general approach on how health practitioners and the lay public viewed CP and gender issues. Specifically, we aimed at analyzing gender role expectations people may have on pain control and pain coping.  Next, we investigated the role that gender role expectations played in shaping health technicians’ perceptions of patients and their suffering, and ultimately, their pain assessment and management strategies. Both quantitative (experimental studies)  and qualitative (grounded-theory) methodologies were used in this project.   ...