Three of the five projects awarded in 2025 in the initiative Promotion of Scientific Culture are associated with the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra (CNC-UC). The awards ceremony, promoted by UC through the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (iiiUC), took place in the auditorium of UC Exploratório — UC's Science Center on September 12.

The project “Descomplicar a Encefalite Autoimune: uma série animada” (Demystifying Autoimmune Encephalitis: an animated series), led by CNC-UC PhD student Ana Vasconcelos, involves the public presentation of audiovisual animations with the aim of promoting literacy about the disease. The presentations will take place in 2026 and 2027, namely at the 3rd Meeting of GENIE — Study Group on Neuroimmunology and Encephalitis, an informal association promoted by a group of researchers from CNC-UC.

The podcast “Entre Nós e o Infinito” (Between Us and Infinity), led by the coordinator of the CNC-UC Technology Transfer Office, Catarina Cunha Santos, plans to record a monthly episode throughout 2026 of a podcast focused on the intersection of health and space research. The project aims to increase scientific literacy, promote public debate, foster interdisciplinary partnerships, and enhance the UC's reputation as an international reference in space research.

CNC-UC is also associated with the project “ORLA - Citizen Science Festival: where Science and Community meet,” led by Filipa Bessa, a researcher at the Centre for Functional Ecology — Science for People & the Planet (CFE).

CNC-UC projects, now supported with €3,000 each, also involve researchers from other UC institutions, such as the Center for Social Studies (CES), the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies — CEIS20, the Center for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra (CISUC), the Center for Geosciences (CGeo), the CFE, and the Institute of Astrophysics (IA).

The Promotion of Scientific Culture initiative, which celebrated its fifth edition in 2025, was created and is supported by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Coimbra (iiiUC). All information about the winning projects can be found here.