Member's Zone

Trainees's Zone

Science for Development
Associação Ciência para o Desenvolvimento

Key Personnel

Dr Mónica Bettencourt Dias. Mónica Bettencourt Dias is a research associate at the University of Cambridge. She graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Lisbon and went on to complete a PhD at the University College London. Mónica is a graduate from the Diploma in Science Communication from Birkbeck College (UK).
She recently co-organised and evaluated the first workshop in Portugal with the aim to train researchers in communicating with the media and public. She wrote a dissertation for the Diploma in Science Communication on the topic of the workshop. She is a founding member of the non-governmental organization, Associação Ciência para o Desenvolvimento, and currently heads its Communication section. She has co-organized courses in Mozambique for university graduates, aimed at promoting scientific activity and careers in science. She is currently coordinating the building of web-based resources to provide information and tools on science and scientific careers.

Institutional profile

The Associação Ciência para o Desenvolvimento (ACD; Science for Development) is a non-profit organisation of young Portuguese and African researchers, working voluntarily to promote public engagement with science, knowledge building, internationalisation of scientific activity and the application of science and technology in the developing world. This is aimed at sustainable, knowledge-driven solutions to the problems affecting the developing world, mainly in the life sciences. This association was created in 2000 and has its headquarters in Lisbon. This association implements five main lines of activity:

• Courses aimed at promoting the scientific activity - aiming to stimulate university students from different Life Science branches, young technicians and academic staff to a career in Science. They alert young people to the applications of Life Sciences and Biotechnology to the economical and social problems in developing countries.

• Public debates on scientific issues and the impact of science in society. A debate on the future of science in developing countries was organised in 2002 in Mozambique, with participation of the general public, governmental entities and NGOs.

• Advanced technical workshops aimed at responding to specific technical needs. These workshops are necessarily very specific and are organised in response to local requests. ACD is planning to organise science communication workshops for scientists in developing countries.

• An exchange programme that permits short-term training of young scientists and technicians in methodologies not available in their home countries.

• A web-based information resource and discussion forum. This is implemented in the form of a web-site which includes a variety of information of relevance to developing world scientists. This resource is still at a preliminary stage (see here). Currently a small team of volunteers is adding information on funding sources for scientists in the developing world, scientific debates such as that on genetic modification of plants, country-specific information on scientific institutions, information on the scientific career, how to write curricula and motivation letters. In the future the site will also host a discussion forum for topics related to science in the developing world.