Santa Casa Neuroscience Awards

In 2013, Santa Casa began to directly promote excellent scientific and medical research, through the creation of one of the largest grants for projects in Neuroscience developed in Portugal. The initiative is an ambitious bet on the merit and value of our medical and scientific community, and has become a reference in the field of national Research & Development.

 

The Santa Casa Neurosciences Awards represent an annual investment of 400.000 euros and are intended to promote scientific or clinical research work in the multidisciplinary areas of biosciences, namely neurology, neuropathology, biochemistry, molecular biology, molecular genetics, chemistry, pharmacology, immunology, physiology, and cell biology, among others.

The Melo e Castro Award, worth 200 thousand euros, distinguishes the project that enhances the recovery and treatment of spinal cord injuries, territory in which Santa Casa pioneered in the country when, in 1966, it opened the Rehabilitation Medicine Center of Alcoitão. This award was implemented to promote the discovery of solutions for the rehabilitation of people suffering from these pathologies, significantly reducing the associated motor and physiological limitations.

The Mantero Belard Award, also worth 200.000 teuros, aims to recognize and promote scientific or clinical research carried out in the field of neurodegenerative diseases associated with aging, such as Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease, enabling the emergence of new strategies in treatment and restoration of neurological functions.

It is for the hope in building an effective response in the treatment of spinal cord injuries, a reality with which the institution deals daily, and for the autonomy and dignity of the more than 11.000 elderly people for whom it works, that the challenge to the national medical and scientific community is released.