Where Ideas Grow

i3S members among recipients of Ciência Viva Awards

i3S emeritus researcher and member of parliament Alexandre Quintanilha, as well as the fiction series produced by i3S/Ipatimup, “2' Minutos para mudar de vida” (“2 minutes to change a life”) were the winners of the “Grande Prémio Ciência Viva” and the “Prémio Ciência Viva Media” awards this year. The pedagogical kit created from the television series was also recognized by Casa das Ciências with the award of the “Prémio Especial do Júri”.

The Grande Prémio Ciência Viva recognizes Alexandre Quintanilha for his “remarkable action in promoting scientific culture as a researcher, professor, author, and advocate in the areas of biology and biophysics”. With a PhD in Theoretical Physics, he founded the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC) and chaired the committee that created the largest national research consortium in the area of health (the i3S) - aligning the efforts of the major health and biomedical research laboratories at the University of Porto.

As the jury of Agência Ciência Viva put it “science and society has been central to Alexandre Quintanilha’s activity. The perception of risk, the public understanding of science and the ethical challenges of cognitive improvement are some of the areas in which he worked”.

After his retirement as a teacher and researcher in 2015 - Alexandre Quintanilha became a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic, where he chaired the Education and Science Commission. He is currently a member of the Environment, Energy, and Spatial Planning Commission. “The defense of knowledge-based decision-making has characterized the participation of Alexandre Quintanilha in public debates and in the media, he has not refrained from intervening on divisive issues, such as the decriminalization of abortion or medically assisted procreation”, underlined the jury.

Fiction series produced by i3S/Ipatimup challenges changing behaviors

The “Prémio Ciência Viva Media” this year was awarded to the health education campaign “2' Minutos para mudar de vida” (“2 minutes to change a life”), which was created by the Ipatimup Cancer Prevention Unit and the i3S, in partnership with the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation. “For the first time, a health program was shown during prime time on RTP1, promoting the sharing of information and challenging the viewer to reflect on their behaviors and daring them to change”, explained the jury.

For Nuno Teixeira Marcos (coordinator of the Cancer Prevention Unit at Ipatimup / i3S) “this Ciência Viva award makes me particularly proud as it is unexpected, unsolicited award, make by direct nomination of the most important institution of scientific dissemination in Portugal”. The series, consisting of 20 episodes, was broadcast on RTP during prime time, and was part of a multiplatform campaign on television, web, mobile, and face-to-face sessions, for health education that promotes behavioral changes within the reach of everyone to prevent non-communicable diseases.

With this objective in mind, the team also created a pedagogical kit for teachers to work on health issues in the classroom, which was recently given the “Prémio Especial do Júri” award by Casa das Ciências. The kit was called “2’ Minutos para mudar de vida – guião de exploração didática” and consists of a set of 20 sheets - one for each theme in the series - where the “episodes are explored in greater depth, with extended content and quizzes of knowledge and exploration, and a Teacher's Guide for each of the 20 themes with the ‘science’ necessary for the exploration of the theme, the pedagogical objectives, the take-home messages, and quiz answers”. “We’ve had 15,409 downloads/views so far, which testifies to its success with teachers”, stresses Nuno Teixeira Marcos.

The team, made up of Nuno Teixeira Marcos, Luís Carvalho, Nuno Ribeiro, and Paulo Gomes, is now producing an online course for “2’ Minutos para mudar de vida” with 10 training modules on “cancer prevention from the perspective of the individual - main factors risk factors, preventive behaviors, screening and self-exams. The modules have several exclusive multimedia content and are pedagogically organized to be useful both in the classroom and exclusively online, allowing use by both students and the general population”.

The “2’ Minutos para mudar de vida” series has also added other awards and distinctions across borders: “Telly Award Gold Winner” in the category “Television - Fitness, health and wellness”, “Telly Award Bronze” in the category “Television - Public interest / awareness”, special selection from the World Health Organization's Health for All Festival, MEDEA Awards public award, as the most voted European educational media project in Europe (with more than 1/3 of all votes), official selection (only 15 short films were selected) for the 16th edition of the Festival Pariscience, and nomination for the National Animation Award 2020, in the category of professional films.