CBR Mission and Vision
Health through fundamental science
Founded in 2021, Cátolica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR) is a research unit of Católica Medical School of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (FM-UCP). The two institutions are committed to building and strengthening bridges between research and clinical practice. CBR seeks to make fundamental discoveries to improve human health, through advances in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases.
Mission
Our mission is to develop multidisciplinary investigator-driven fundamental (also called basic) biomedical research. We foster multidisciplinarity in a collaborative and creative environment to discover new solutions to the current and future societal (human health and planet-wide) challenges. We empower talented researchers who combine innovative technologies that bridge medicine, biology, and engineering, with the goal of understanding complex systems.
CBR´s strategic objectives reflect our ambition and commitment to:
- Pursue excellence in discovery science. We offer an open and dynamic environment where a broad research portfolio and pursuing new research opportunities are encouraged. Particular focus is placed on quality of the science, relevance to human health, as well as interdisciplinarity with physics, engineering, and clinical sciences.
- Develop future research leaders. Attracting and retaining the best talents, whilst ensuring a balanced turnover, is the central effort of the CBR leadership. Furthermore, we ensure an independent and thorough assessment to guarantee scientific quality and productivity.
- Promote cross-fertilization between research, medical education, and healthcare. CBR aims to advance human health through basic research, and to create close and effective links with clinical science and medical education. CBR researchers are integrated in the Faculty of Medicine; moreover, our participation in the Clinical Academic Center Católica Luz (CAC-CL), a center of clinical excellence with close integration between care, teaching and research, composed of partner institutions UCP, Grupo Luz Saúde S.A., Hospital da Luz S. A., GLSMED Learning Health S.A. and the União das Misericórdias Portuguesas, is pivotal for the achievement of this objective.
- Deliver societal impact through openness and public engagement. CBR seeks to establish a strong relationship with various societal actors and to play an active role in building science and health literacy competencies, increasingly necessary tools for citizens to make informed, responsible, evidence-based decisions and to actively participate in influencing policy for a future sustainable society.
Vision
Our ambition is to contribute to truly disruptive and significant advances in medicine through fundamental science. CBR purposely casts a wide nets of scientific interests rather than focusing on a unique topic, as we strongly believe that science advances require non-traditional multidisciplinary synergies. We seek a better understanding of the biology of all organisms by employing insights from engineering, physics, mathematics, computational advances, environmental sciences, among other fields.
CBR wants to develop a researcher career framework that will attract international talent, support them to reach their full potential, and allow them to acquire experience in teaching or other non-academic sectors.
In a 10-year time frame, we expect to assemble 20 Principal Investigators (PIs, for short), with about one third of Senior level and two thirds of Junior level positions. Principal investigators will be recruited through Católica Medical School to ensure their active participation in teaching.
Scientific assessment will be implemented with the support of external reviewers and our Scientific Advisory Board. With a defined periodicity, academic performance and professional conduct will be assessed using a comprehensive set of qualitative and quantitative criteria.
CBR´s training and mentoring programme for PhD and postdoctoral researchers will focus on interdisciplinarity, internationalisation and intersectorial career opportunities, for which the CBR will provide researchers with support and advice. Together with partners of the Clinical Academic Center Católica Luz, the Católica Medical School will initiate a PhD program in Medical Sciences in 2023. The curriculum will appeal to students with various backgrounds, and will be flexible and customized to meet each student's needs. CBR PIs are strongly committed to post-graduate programmes: their involvement will range from curriculum design to teaching the principles of the scientific method and hypothesis-driven research, as well as training in various transversal skills.