In October, LSRE-LCM researchers Ariana Pintor and Mariko Carneiro participated in the program BluAct, promoted by the Matosinhos City Council and UPTEC, aiming at business ideas for a blue economy and environment, born from knowledge, research and innovation.

Ariana and Mariko submitted a project entitled FilterCork, related to Mariko's PhD work (supervised by Cidália Botelho and Ariana Pintor), that consists of a practical application of a functionalised adsorbent based on cork granulates for the treatment of drinking water contaminated with arsenic.

The BluAct program included mentoring sessions with specialists in the Blue Economy sector and UPTEC. Based on their feedback, Mariko and Ariana were able to present a successful pitch of their business idea to commercialise the adsorbent product in the final session on 27 October at Matosinhos City Council, along with the other three finalists (Fykia Biotech, ISS – Inclita Seaweed Solutions Lda and Windcredible).

After evaluation by a jury composed of UPTEC, INDAQUA, Matosinhos City Council, and investor companies, FilterCork was selected as the program’s winner and granted the BluEco prize of 5 000€ by INDAQUA. Besides the monetary award, FilterCork was also given an incubation period of over 12 months and an accelerator program at UPTEC to develop the business idea. They will also integrate the network of Fórum Oceano, a Blue Economy hub, if/when the idea develops into a company.

This prize  highlights the viability and the importance of bringing the knowledge developed a LSRE-LCM to the business sector to boost innovation in the economy.

Eight members of the LSRE-LCM staff are included in a list of the most cited scientists in the world released by Stanford University, assessing scientists for career-long citation impact until the end of 2021. This list contains a large database created by experts from that University and is based on data from Scopus that ranks journals and article citations up to 2021 for scientists from several research fields.

Professors José Luís Figueiredo and Alírio Rodrigues are the most cited researchers from the University of Porto and are ranked in the top 20 at the national level.

Other LSRE-LCM members included in the list are: José Órfão, Fernando Pereira, Eugénia Macedo, Adrián Silva, Vítor Vilar and Rui Boaventura.

Two other LSRE-LCM members, Cláudia Silva and Ana Rita Ribeiro, feature in the single calendar year 2021 list.

These accomplishments show the high level of research and the quality of individual researchers at LSRE-LCM.

Congratulations to all!

More information here.