Where Ideas Grow

Regenerative medicine project wins innovation awards

The “Orgavalue” project, led by researcher Rodrigo Val d’Oleiros, from the Microenvironments for New Therapies group, recently won the first prize of BIP Acceleration, the program for accelerating research results enhancement projects at the University of Porto. Awarded with five thousand euros, this project, in the area of regenerative medicine, proposes an innovative technology to create new human organs, with potential application in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases.

About this award, Rodrigo Val d’Oleiros emphasizes that it means “above all, recognition. It is always pleasant to receive support for our work and dedication, especially from the institution we are associated with. An award is always an opportunity for individual and collective expression”.

“Orgavalue”, which also includes researcher Cristina Ribeiro, from the Microenvironments for New Therapies group, has already won several awards, namely the TOP TEAM of the European Innovation Academy (EIA), in 2019, the EIT Innovation Support Program Health 2021, the UI-CAN TecMinho program, by the University of Minho, and the Entrepreneurship Start-up contest, by the Paris Saclay University. Recently, it participated in the first pan-European competition for the 60 best start-ups of the main European Universities, the StageTwo Competition, supported by the European Commission.

Rodrigo Val d'Oleiros is an ICBAS PhD student doing research at i3S and a medical student at the University of Minho School of Medicine, he also received the Prize for Active Citizenship in Entrepreneurship awarded by the University of Porto and is also the Research and Innovation of the University of Porto in the European University Alliance for Global Health and member of the Executive Board.

This year's edition of BIP Acceleration also recognized the projects GENESIS (2nd place) and OceanCare (3rd place). The first consists of an “innovative system, capable of producing and simultaneously storing green H2, providing energy on demand”. The second proposes a new method for “brushing boats with ocean-friendly anti-fouling and anti-oxidant coatings”.