EIT Health 2018 StarShip winner garners award in Portugal

EIT Health programme helped start-up receive €50 000 in funding

A University of Porto researcher who won the EIT Health StarShip Programme in 2018 with his team, became one of the winners of the Portuguese 2018 Youth Participatory Budget.

As a winner, Hernâni Zão Oliveira’s Âmago project is going to receive €50 000 for its implementation in the north region of Portugal. The ÂMAGO project was developed by applying the knowledge and training received during the EIT Health StarShip programme. The ÂMAGO initiative is intended to create the conditions for the establishment of an inter-generational network that promotes the development and dissemination of innovative solutions in the health sector.

It was in 2018 that Hernâni Zão Oliveira (pictured) began his collaboration with EIT Health and the training he got during that period was essential for the genesis of this new project: “Based upon the Biodesign methodology learned during the Starship program, I developed an intergenerational project proposal between elementary/secondary schools and senior universities, to discuss new cross-cutting solutions to address identified needs in the field of Communication in Health”, says Hernâni.

The 50,000EUR will be an important help to “fund researchers, materials and other costs for the development of the pilot project with 3 experimental laboratories in cities in the North of Portugal”, he adds.

To achieve this goal, the ÂMAGO project will foster partnerships between elementary and secondary schools and senior organisations, so that collaborative laboratories where discussion about problems related with Prevention, Communication, and Health can be developed and established.

In this project, young and elderly people are invited to identify needs, to analyse them and to propose solutions to increase the population’s knowledge about health. According to Hernâni, ÂMAGO could bring advantages in different fields, namely in the more active involvement of municipalities and their social and educational institutions in contributing to scientific research, technological advancement and in the improvement of the population’s quality of life.

“The StarShip programme gave me the opportunity to get in touch with professionals from different realities and perspectives. The methodology used allowed us to identify, order and prioritise the needs of different population segments concerning health and helped us to reach a solution that benefits all stakeholders. All this, allied with teamwork, encouraged me to apply the knowledge acquired and create ÂMAGO”, concludes Hernâni.

More information

• Contact: Hernâni Zão Oliveira, hernanizao@gmail.com
• Sara Fidalgo, sfidalgo@reit.up.pt