PROGRAMME
The programme is available in the following link:
Plenary Speakers
Isabel Ferreira
Isabel Ferreira, former Secretary of State for the Enhancement of the Interior and Regional Development of the XXII and XXIII Constitutional Governments. Currently, she is a Member of the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic and Vice-President of the PS parliamentary group. She is a Principal Coordinating Professor of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, of which she was Vice-President, Director of the Mountain Research Center and Mentor of the MORE and AQUAValor Collaborative Laboratories.
She coordinated the Scientific Council of Natural and Environmental Sciences of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, was a member of the Advisory Board of the Science Foundation – Flanders (FWO), and a member of the Committee of Experts monitoring the European Framework Programmes H2020 and Horizon Europe.
She is one of the most cited researchers in the world (top 1%), having been distinguished in the last 9 years in the Essential Science Indicators index, one of the most prestigious indicators of research quality. Her work includes the publication of 4 international books, 60 book chapters, more than 900 scientific articles and several national and European patents, most of them resulting from technology transfer to industry, some of them being the basis for the creation of spin-offs.
She received several distinctions such as the Gulbenkian Prize for Stimulating Scientific Research; the recognition for the dissemination of Portuguese science in the world, and mentioned by Ciência Viva – National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture, in the book Women in Science; In 2019 she received the European Social Innovation Award from the European Commission; in 2022 she was distinguished by Superbrands as a personality of excellence in the area of Science.
Ana Machado Silva
Ana Machado Silva is Coordinator for R&D and Incentives at MC, the largest food retailer in Portugal. She coordinates a team dedicated to the development of collaborative R&D and Innovation projects in the areas of food development, sustainability and energy transition. Several of those projects have tackled the challenges of improving food sustainability through science and innovative approaches. She has extensive experience in managing both National and European projects where universities, research centers, private companies and other stakeholders combine their expertise to tackle key challenges of the food value-chain. Ana is also a regular member jury of Ecotrophelia Portugal, a competition that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship in the European food sector and awards the best eco-innovative and sustainable food products.
Anastasia Mantziari
Anastasia Mantziari is Policy Officer at European Commission and DG Research and Innovation. The doctoral research focused on assessing the stability of probiotics in human milk during storage, determining the effect of human milk fortifiers (HMFs) on the adhesion properties of probiotics, and investigating the impact of HMFs, cold storage and pasteurization on the human milk microbiota composition.
Rosalinda Scalia
Rosalinda Scalia is Deputy Head of Unit for Bioeconomy & Food Systems. She is linked with the area of Research and Innovation with design and implementation of EU policy and programmes in the area of Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment research. She is also linked with Plant Health Policy (EU Plant Health legislation; EU official controls of the food chain; Free Trade Agreements), Plant stress effects and alleviation and Organic farming and crop science.
Mohamed Wageih
Project Officer @PRIMA Secretariat Barcelona. Certified STI professional and M&E Specialist from ILO with a track record of expertise in EU projects. Prior to PRIMA, he served as the Director of the Observatory of Business Innovation at a private University and held a pivotal role as an EU Project Coordinator at the Academy of Scientific Research. He was an R&I consultant at various Egyptian and European institutes. Over the years, he successfully developed a portfolio of over 25 EU-funded projects (EuropeAid, FP7, H2020, Horizon Europe, DG NEAR …) across Egypt, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reflecting his deep understanding of international cooperation and R&I dynamics. Currently, I’m monitoring more than 45 projects spanning Europe and the MENA region. His visionary leadership has led to the creation of innovative tools such as PRIMA Intelligent Analytical Tool and PRIMA M&E Platform. He has enriched his knowledge through specialized internships at prestigious institutes (UNESCO, WB, DLR, Manchester Univ….) Moreover, he has co-authored several policy reports and a book chapter, represented PRIMA at numerous international conferences, and delivered various training sessions at EU-Mediterranean countries.
Maria Maia
Maria Maia is a senior scientific and policy officer, International Relations Department at Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (www.fct.pt). Since 2009, Maria is following and participating in the Euro-Mediterranean policy dialogue on research and innovation and its implementation through several initiatives and partnerships, as PRIMA. She also participates in similar European Union science and innovation processes with other regions of the world. She is PT delegate to several European fora for International Cooperation on Science and Technology and participant in several European Partnerships. Maria holds experience of 16 years, as a researcher in agroecology and terrestrial ecology, in several research units in Portugal and The Netherlands, participated in dozens of European projects since the 5th Framework Programme in research and national research projects and a decade of experience as a consultant for several SMEs.
Keynote Speakers
Manuela Pintado
Graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Porto and a PhD in Biotechnology from the Portuguese Catholic University. As an Associate Professor at the School of Biotechnology, she works at the interface between Microbiology and Health. She has developed numerous R&D+I projects (with national and international companies and scientific institutions) in the areas of valorization of by-products and waste, production and characterization of bioactive compounds, functional foods and natural antimicrobials. She is the Director of the CBQF Research Center – Center for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry.
Lillian Barros
Lillian Barros is a Principal Researcher at the Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança and vice-coordinator of CIMO and vice-director of the Associate Laboratory SusTEC. She obtained her degree in Biotechnology Engineering (2002) at the Institute Polytechnic of Bragança and obtained her PhD “Doctor Europeus” in Pharmacy (Nutrition and Bromatology) at the University of Salamanca (2008). She has published more than 700 indexed papers, within the highest impact factor journals in Food Science and Technology area and has an 81 h‐index. She has edited several books and book chapters, registered national and international patents, and is principal researcher of several national and international projects. Her scientific work has raised interest and has led to the supervision of several post-doc, PhD, and master students. She has received awards from several different organizations. L.B scientific production has been very relevant and has reached top positions in the world rankings (Highly Cited Researcher in Clarivate since 2016). Her research targets are mainly in the identification, separation, and recovery of functional molecules from different natural products.
Ana Novo Barros
Graduated in Food Chemistry and a Master in Chemistry of Natural Products and Foods from the University of Aveiro, PhD in Chemistry from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. She took the Aggregation exams in Chemical Sciences in January 2017. She was director of several Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate courses. She carries out her research in the area of valorization of by-products from the food industry, having supervised 3 post-docs, 11 PhD theses and 58 Master’s theses. She has published more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific articles. She is currently President of the Food Chemistry Division of the Portuguese Chemical Society. She coordinated the R&D area at a cosmetics company for 1 year. She has coordinated several Scientific Projects, and is currently Coordinator of a European Project, Wasteless-Waste Quantification Solutions To Limit Environmental Stress, with a global amount of 5,5 million euros.
Invited Speakers
Laura Roman Rivas
Laura Román is a Ramón y Cajal principal researcher working at University of Valladolid (Spain). Her current research efforts center on the understanding of the molecular details of structure formation in plant-based food systems. After completing her PhD in Food Engineering (University of Valladolid), she joined the University of Guelph (Canada), working on polysaccharides biochemistry and extrusion processing of plant-based food for a sustainable and nutritious food supply. Later, she joined Aarhus University (Denmark) with a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, of which she was also principal investigator, broadening the scope of her research to understanding the functionality of plant proteins. In 2021, she won the prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science research award, as one of the top 3 young women scientists in Denmark. In 2022, she received the internationally recognized Nils Foss Talent Prize as a young research talent for her work in the application of analytical technology to improve the quality of our food systems.
Beatriz Oliveira
Beatriz Oliveira is Full Professor from University of Porto, Faculty of Pharmacy; Director of the Master Course in Quality Control; member of the EFSA Scientific Network for Risk Assessment of GMOs; and member of a specialized committee from ASAE. She is the Head of GRESA, a REQUIMTE / LAQV research group which includes PhD researchers and PhD and MSc students. She supervised several students as well as co-authored publications in international journals, in national journals, book chapters; and communications in national and international meetings. The developed work includes food science and security, environmental sustainability and evaluation of by-products focused on their valorization by environmentally friendly and sustainable methodologies. She has an extensive collaboration with companies in the food sector and several award-winning works. She has 4 granted patents and 3 under evaluation.
Nuno Mateus
Nuno Mateus graduated in Biochemistry and obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2002 both at the University of Porto (Portugal). He has been teaching at the University since 2001 and is currently Full Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Faculty of Science at the University of Porto, where he has been teaching Food Chemistry and Industrial Biochemistry (among other courses). His field of research concerns food chemistry and biochemistry, essentially food polyphenols and in particular red wine chemistry. He has been collaborating with local industrial companies (especially Port wine companies) and has been involved in several research projects funded essentially by the Portuguese Government. One of his main areas of research deals with the bioavailability and biological properties of food phenolics towards some cancers and age-related diseases. He also started a line focused on the recycling pf polyphenols from industrial wastes to use them in novel cosmetic formulations. Presently, he is involved in the development of novel foods and ingredients by using sustainable approaches from natural resources.
José Teixeira
José António Teixeira is currently Professor at Biological Engineering Department, University of Minho He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Porto (1980) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering also from University of Porto (1988). José António Teixeira has been developing his research activities in two main areas Industrial Biotechnology (including bioprocess development for the valorization of agro-industrial residues and new design bioreactors and continuous processing) and food biotechnology (including non-conventional food processing and food nanotechnology) (https://www.ceb.uminho.pt/People/Details/e822cb82-acf1-4e0e-b026-6a62b6ed83f4). José Antonio Teixeira is author/co-author of over 700 peer reviewed papers corresponding to an Hindex (Scopus) – 97 and has been named Highly Sited Researcher since 2018.
PRIMA Initiatives
Ingrid Aguiló-Aguayo
Ingrid Aguiló is a Ramón y Cajal researcher in the Research group of Processed Fruits and Vegetables that belongs to the Postharvest Program of IRTA in Lleida. She has a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Lleida, specialized in the field of new technologies for the processing of plant-based foods. She carried out different postdoctoral stays in international centers such as INRA (France) and Teagasc (Ireland). She is closely linked to projects focused on the valorization of surpluses or co-products of the fruit and vegetable chain through the development of new ingredients that allow their integration into the food value chain. Among the different projects managed, the EU-Agrimax project stands out, in which different by-products from the tomato, cereal and olive industry have been valued, obtaining valuable food ingredients. Few years ago, she began the exploration of new sources of protein through the exploration of legumes and microalgae and their incorporation into the reformulation of foods. She is currently the coordinator of an EU-PRIMA (LOCALNUTLEG) project that explores the legumes and nuts of the Mediterranean region to develop products of high nutritional and gastronomic value rich in protein.
Pedro Babo
Pedro Babo graduated in Microbial Biology and Genetics in 2007 and completed his Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2008 from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in the study of genetic variability and agronomic characteristics of temperate rice. In 2010, he was awarded a doctoral scholarship from FCT, having established lines of research in endodontic regenerative therapies. During his academic career he published 29 articles (8 as first author) and 3 book chapters. From 2017 to 2021 he was a Guest Professor at the Univ. Minho, and since 2022 he has been a guest professor at the Univ. from Cuenca (Ecuador). He is co-founder and the scientific director of LANDRATECH.
Luana Bontempo
Luana Bontempo is a researcher at Fondazione Edmund Mach (Italy), where she is currently the Head of the Traceability Unit. She graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Padua (2001). Subsequently, she got a post-graduated specialization degree in Chemical Methodologies for Survey and Analysis at the University of Padua (2004) and a PhD in Food Sciences at the University of Udine (2011). Her current research activity is mainly focused on developing analytical methods for applying stable isotope ratio analysis to characterize and trace along the production chain many foodstuffs, in particular products of high value (e.g. Geographical Indication’s products). Recently she is also developing methods for applying stable isotope ratios to ecology (i.e. bird migration, ungulates trophic niche). She has published more than 80 ISI papers. She is currently involved in several national and European projects and is coordinating PRIMA ProMedLife project (https://promedlifeproject.eu/).
Ursula Gonzales-Barron
Ursula Gonzales-Barron is a Peruvian-Irish national. She is a Food Engineer (Honours graduated) from the National Agricultural University La Molina, Peru, and holds a PhD in Biosystems Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland. She is currently Principal Investigator at the CIMO Mountain Research Centre (Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal) where she leads the “Food Safety and Quality Analytics” research team. She has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, and has led several international projects funded by EU and EFSA. She is Editor in three peer-reviewed journals; and acts as President of the International Committee on Predictive Modelling in Food (ICPMF), as Expert Member in ISO/TC34/SC9/WG19 (International Organization for Standardization, Genève), and as Effective Member in the Normalization Technical Committee CT 061 (Microbiology in the Food Chains) of the Instituto Português de Qualidade (IPQ, Lisbon). Dr Ursula Gonzales-Barron has been an Expert Member of the Expert Consultation Meeting on Microbial Risk Assessment (JEMRA, 2019) and of the two JEMRA Expert Consultation Meetings on microbiological risk assessment of Listeria monocytogenes in foods (2022-2023) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). Dr Ursula Gonzales-Barron has been on two occasions a Consultant of the World Health Organization (WHO, 2022; 2023).
Carla Brites
Carla, is senior researcher in Food Science & Technology at INIAV- Institute for Agrarian and Veterinarian Research in Portugal, specializes in developing appealing and healthy cereal-based products. Her approach encompasses leveraging genetic diversity, refining research methodologies, and pioneering value-added innovations to address shifting consumer preferences. With extensive experience in research project management, she integrates safety, nutrition, and sensory attributes to enhance the quality of products. Since 2014, Carla has contributed actively to European Bioeconomy research policy support, playing a key role in the H2020-SC2 Programme Committee and as a member of the Standing Committee on Agriculture Research (SCAR). Currently, she serves as a Research & Innovation officer within the Innovation & Knowledge Exchange team of EIP-AGRI, the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Network. Engaged in various international and national consortia, Carla currently leads the TRACE-RICE PRIMA project, focusing on traceability, authenticity, contaminant mitigation, and innovative rice-based food production in the Mediterranean. Additionally, she actively participates in three Horizon projects: RefreSCAR, European Partnerships Agroecology, and FutureFoodS, with commitments extending until 2027.
Dulcineia Wessel
Dulcineia Ferreira Wessel is a Professor of Chemistry at Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Portugal. Her area of expertise is value creation of natural based materials for one-health. Valorization of endogenous resources in rural development and territory cohesion. DFW has implemented within 12 years, 11 RD&I projects at IPV, such as Waste2Value, Forest4Future-PP21, BagaConValor and Monitor2030, in cooperation with the industry, leading multidisciplinary teams at national and international level, fostering innovation and generated valuable knowledge that led to beneficial outcomes for small and medium-sized enterprises. Some main new ideas focused on valuing traditional agri-food products, biowaste and by-products towards a more circular and resilient economic ecosystem. Presently coordinator of the EU project InovFarmer.MED.
Mecit Öztop
Mecit Öztop is a faculty researcher in the Department of Food Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU), specializing in food processing technologies and sustainability. He got his PhD degree from University of California , Davis in 2012 and later returned to Türkiye . He has experience in valorizing food industry by-products , processing technologies and using non destructive analytical techniques to assess food quality and safety. Prof. Öztop is coordinating a PRIMA initiative FunTomP, focusing on functional tomato products that has the aim to reformulate traditional Mediterranean products using novel technologies. Recently he has been involved in another PRIMA project : ProxIMed that focuses on alternative protein production. Additionally, he has been coordinating the Marie Curie RISE project SuChAQuality and partner in the Staff Exchange project NMR Improv, aimed at improving food chain using non destructive techniques for food quality assessment. His work not only advances scientific knowledge but also promotes practical applications for sustainable food processing.