Next Wednesday, April 26th, starting at 9 am, the public presentation of the "EXCELScIOR" project will take place, funded with around 2.5 million euros under the ERA Chair Actions, the Commission's funding mechanism European Union that supports universities and research centers so that they can attract and retain qualified human resources and, at the same time, promote excellent research in their areas of activity.
 
The event will take place at the Colégio da Trindade of the University of Coimbra (UC) and will feature several interventions during the morning, namely by the president of the Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra (CNC-UC) and the Center for Innovation in Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CIBB), Luís Pereira de Almeida; and the coordinator of “EXCELScIOR” and vice-president of CNC-UC, Paulo Oliveira.
 
In the afternoon, around 4 pm, there will be a speech by the "ERA Chair Holder" of "EXCELScIOR", John Ioannidis, professor at Stanford University, in the United States of America, considered by Paulo Oliveira as «one of the most highly regarded researchers to worldwide, being the right person to create this new research group». John Ioannidis will present the communication "Evaluating research practices and the academic reward system", which will also take place at Colégio da Trindade and is open to all interested parties. The public presentation session of the project will be closed by the Rector of the UC, Amílcar Falcão
 
Coordinated by Paulo Oliveira, researcher and vice-president of CNC-UC, the project «will create a very strong research group at the University of Coimbra in a very relevant area, metascience», explains the coordinator. «We know that a significant portion of the science that is done has reproducibility problems, due to errors in the design of the scientific process. This new group from the UC will not only analyze the quality of science carried out at the University of Coimbra in the most varied domains, but also design processes that lead to our science becoming better and better, and above all that it has more impact», contextualizes Paulo Oliveira.
 
Carolina Caetano & Catarina Ribeiro