Four Cape Verdeans were awarded scholarships under the first phase of the Envolve Ciência PALOP programme. Researchers Gisela García, Nedi Varela Rodriguez, Ariana Filomena Freire and Mara Yun Fernández are covered in this first phase of the programme. The specialists will undertake postdoctoral training starting in June between the cities of Lisbon, Porto and Braga.

With clinical training in obstetrics, educator and researcher Gisela Garcia, 33, explains in a conversation with Balai that she always wanted to pursue an academic career and be a scientist in order to combine the two fields.

After obtaining his doctorate in public health, in the field of epidemiological research on chronic non-communicable diseases, in 2023, he began to see new opportunities, especially since, as he highlights, Cape Verde has “the challenge of being a world” due to the lack of… Funding, and presenting a scientific project requires resources.” With this idea in mind, apply for the second edition of the Envolve Ciência PALOP programme.

The first phase of the program consists of a 6-month postdoctoral training, at a reference institution in the scientific field in Portugal, Gisela García will be at the Institute of Health and Tropical Medicine (IHMT) of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. You will study 'Acute febrile illnesses in sub-Saharan Africa: most common causes, diagnostic strategies and care protocols'.

At this stage, the project is detailed, and then in a second stage, a funding request is submitted for up to three years and an amount of up to 165 thousand euros, after which the project must be implemented in the researcher’s country of origin.

As for expectations, Gisela Garcia, who also works as a consultant specializing in gender, race and intersectionality studies, says it is a great honor for me as a Cape Verdean to train at a prestigious university like Nova and at the Institute of Tropical Medicine. . “I will invest in my project and I want to be one of the winners of the second phase of the competition to implement my studies in Cape Verde and continue my scientific career.”

Professor and researcher at the University of Cape Verde, Uni-CV, Neddy Rodrigues, PhD in Biomedical Sciences and principal investigator of the INCUBATOR biomedical research project, focuses on prostate cancer and is funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the La. Caixa in January 2022, another Cape Verdean national selected for the program will be at CINTESIS – Center for Research in Health Technologies and Services, a large research and development (R&D) unit at the University of Porto.

As the professor explains, within the scope of the INCUBATOR project, the first histology laboratory in Cape Verde was established in 2023, based at the University of Cape Verde (Uni-CV), and focuses on the investigative diagnosis of prostate cancer, “the number one cause of death due to cancer among men in Cape Verde.” the green”.

The aforementioned project has a partnership between the Faculty of Medicine of Mozambique, the Agostino Neto de Cabo Verde Hospital and the Central Hospital of Maputo and aims to “create a database related to biomedical research to achieve functional goals in the therapeutic selection of tumors in patients, identify genetic polymorphisms and compare them with other tumor databases.” .

Neddy Rodrigues adds that the project, in this initial phase, will be advanced to the second phase and “aims to (re)use secondary data to enhance clinical research and improve health services, in this case with a focus on cancer prevention and prostate diagnosis.” “.

As for the other two from Cape Verde, Uni-CV professor and researcher Ariana Filomena Freire will be at the GIMM Foundation – Gulbenkian Institute of Molecular Medicine (Institute of Molecular Medicine) during the first phase and her fellow researcher Mara Yun Fernandez will be at the Institute for Research in Life and Health Sciences (ICVS). It is an integrated research and development unit of the Faculty of Medicine (EM) – University of Minho, in Braga.

According to information from Uni-CV, Mara Yuen Fernandez, PhD in Pharmacology, focuses on the fields of neuropsychiatry and neurosciences, and will devote herself to genetic polymorphisms and neuropsychiatric complications associated with alcohol abuse in Cape Verde. The Cape Verde project aims “to establish the first neuroscience laboratory in the country.”

The ENVOLVE Ciência PALOP programme, developed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, benefits young researchers in the field of health sciences and aims to support the development of scientific careers in Portuguese-speaking African countries – Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe – especially for young researchers under 40 years of age, who have completed a doctorate in the field of health sciences less than five years ago.

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