In 2023, for the second year in a row, four CiiEM researchers —Leandro Chambrone, Paula Pereira, João Botelho, and Vanessa Machado—were included in the "Stanford/Elsevier's Top 2% Scientist Rankings". This prestigious list, based on SCOPUS data, highlights scientists with significant global impact in their respective fields.

Leandro Chambrone also featured on the list of scientists with the greatest career impact worldwide. The selection covers 22 areas and 174 disciplines, recognizing researchers whose work has advanced their fields and influenced other scholars.

Advancing Research on Diabetes and Oral Health with the World Health Organization (WHO)

We are proud to announce that João Botelho has joined the WHO’s consultancy team to develop an upcoming technical document on Diabetes and Oral Health.

This groundbreaking initiative aims to create a comprehensive resource to guide healthcare professionals and specialists in providing essential care for individuals with diabetes, with a special focus on oral health.

João Botelho’s involvement represents a significant step toward:

Promoting integrated health policies that address both systemic and oral health. Enhancing the quality of life for diabetic patients worldwide. Highlighting the importance of prevention and treatment of oral complications related to diabetes. Stay tuned for updates on this impactful project as we work together to shape the future of global health.

Domestic violence represents a serious social and public health issue worldwide, affecting contemporary society. International and national scientific communities have worked to develop risk assessment tools for domestic violence, with the aim of ensuring victims' safety, preventing violence, and developing management strategies to minimize risk. It also assists the criminal justice system in implementing more effective measures to combat violence. Portuguese Government has been investing in the development of responses to combat this type of crime and launched a call for a scientific research project to review of the domestic violence risk assessment instrument used by police forces since 2014. Among other public and private universities, Egas Moniz School of Health & Science was selected to lead this project. The research team brings extensive experience in risk assessment studies for domestic violence, including international and national experts in Psychology, Law, Criminology, and Statistics, ensuring a multidisciplinary approach to this challenge. This team is coordinate by Iris Almeida, Doctorate in Psychology with technical-scientific experience in violence risk assessment, with a particular focus on domestic violence, homicide and femicide. For Egas Moniz and for this team, this project represents the recognition of the work carried out over the years, because we aim to contribute to the evaluation, prevention, and intervention efforts to combat this scourge in society. It also seeks to assist professionals and institutions who face daily challenges in assessing the risk of domestic violence, with a particular focus on ensuring the protection and safety of victims. These efforts aim to improve the social and legal response to the problem, protect victims, and prevent the recidivism of violence.

Daniel Murta is an entrepreneur veterinarian with a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and a faculty member of the Veterinary Medicine degree at the Egas Moniz School of Health & Science.

Daniel started his work in the development of the insect sector in 2011, funding EntoGreen in 2014, and leading several R&D and investment projects in the insect bioindustrial sector since then. He currently leads the InsectERA Mobilizing Agenda, which envisions the effective creation of a new productive sector in Portugal, bringing together investments totaling 43M€ under the Portuguese Recuperation and Resilience Program.

EntoGreen has close ties with academia since its inception, and CiiEM has contributed to its most recent developments Moreover, EntoGreen researchers bring their expertise to teaching, through lectures and demonstrations, and engage in collaborative research with CiiEM’s members.

Aligned with the mission to develop a new bioindustrial sector in Portugal, this partnership contributes to foster the training of human resources, to increase the awareness of novel solutions, and to the further development of new processes and products.

This partnership’s successes include national and international funded projects, such as InsectERA and InFishMix, and the frequent visits of students to EntoGreen units. The collaboration also involves sharing PhD students and resources, further cementing their commitment to innovation.

EntoGreen and Egas Moniz share a vision on One Health and how the development of novel solutions can promote a better life on earth. Their collaboration is a paradigmatic example of the benefits of academia and industry partnerships, leading to the creation and evaluation of new products, processes, and services, to ensure efficacy and safety.

In addition to a successful academic career, Gabriela Almeida is pursuing a path in entrepreneurship. Her journey began in 2019 when she attended a HiSeedTech lecture promoted by the Egas Moniz School of Health & Science. She eventually founded Nitrogen Sensing Solutions (NS2), a startup focused on smart water monitoring technologies for sustainable resource management. NS2 has secured diverse funding, including from the "iTOP Ras" project and the Women TechEU program. Recognized globally, Dr. Almeida has presented her innovations at the UN Water Conference and other international events. NS2 is expanding its presence through programs like Water TechTour 2023.

A 2019 graduate in Nutritional Sciences from Egas Moniz School of Health & Science, Lia completed an internship focused on Community Nutrition and Public Health, leading to the creation of a health promotion project for children.

Inspired by a Postgraduate Program in Start-Up Research, as part of EM's collaboration with ITQB-NOVA, she founded "Crescer com Sabor" in 2021, a Maternal and Child Nutrition Center in Ponta Delgada, Azores. The center offers comprehensive services from preconception to adolescence, including consultations, workshops, and educational resources.

Nuno Taveira was the winner of the Pfizer Award in Clinical Research in 2012, with the Project entitled "Resistance to antibody neutralization in HIV-2 infection occurs in late stage disease and is associated with X4 tropism".

This study involved, in addition to CiiEM, several national and international institutions and contributed to the development of a vaccine for HIV-2.

Joana Afonso holds a Nursing degree (2019) and a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Nursing (2024) from the Egas Moniz School of Health. She has built her clinical expertise in long-term care, palliative care, and thoracic-vascular surgery at Hospital de Santa Marta in Lisbon. She is the CEO and founder of Careceiver, a digital platform launched in 2018 dedicated to care coordination, caregiver education, and disseminating evidence-based information for informal caregivers.

Her personal experience as a caregiver for her grandmothers, diagnosed with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, respectively, served as the initial motivation for her continued commitment to advancing caregiver support and improving healthcare practices. In 2021, she joined the Patient Innovation Association and the NOVA School of Business and Economics – Open & User Innovation Knowledge Center as a research fellow, contributing to interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of health, innovation, and user-led solutions.

Joana currently pursues this mission as CEO and Scientific Care Coordinator at Careceiver, where she leads the integration of nursing science into the digital transformation of care. In collaboration with key healthcare stakeholders such as Multicare, Luz Saúde, and Fidelidade, she applies evidence-based methodologies to develop and validate digital tools that support care integration and improve health literacy among informal caregivers. Her work focuses on translating clinical knowledge into accessible, person-centred technological solutions that promote continuity of care and empower those who provide it. Through this approach, she contributes to building more humanized, connected, and effective health and social care systems.