Neuroscience & Biotechnology: New knowledge & New developments

The relevance and need: Research institutes and universities worldwide have been promoting interdisciplinarity initiatives to foster creativity and innovation. This idea is increasingly valued by the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. As a result, there are different research centers allowing us to maximize resources and increase the value of the implemented research. In addition to this interdisciplinarity effort, we are concerned about involving companies and other institutions in our projects, achieving a multi-disciplinary level. Also, the diversity of the research teams plays a beneficial role in both the design, the creativity, and the implementation of studies, which is reflected later in the evaluation of the whole research.

The aims: NeuroBTec is a project conceived to promote the interconnection between two research centers Research Centre for Human Development (CEDH) and Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina (CBQF), enhancing the development of multidisciplinary projects that link the scientific areas of biotechnology and psychology, as well as the interconnection of academic knowledge with the industry. The aim is to promote the development of new products using natural ingredients that act on the central nervous system (CNS), as well as the development of new protocols for characterizing, validating, and evaluating these products. Also, it is intended to develop a new research line to explore the impact of these products on the gut-brain interconnection. Other research centers in different areas, such as health, economics, and bioethics, are also included in this partnership to promote the development of multidisciplinary projects.
The psychology of consumer is another area targeted by this project, with the purpose of designing and implementing an innovative platform that provides services and assessment essays for new product evaluation.
Finally, another aim of this project is to promote the dissemination of science focused on a social responsibility approach, meaning the inclusion of the scientific community and the whole community, from the very beginnings of the projects.