organisation - the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência

FUNDRAISING
Maria João Leão Head
PhD in Cancer and Virology, University of London, UK, 2004
Head of service since October 2010
The IGC develops an in-house programme aimed at raising private funds for
science through fundraising initiatives with private companies, charities and
the general public.
MAJOR PROJECTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
THE IGC - EVERYTHING IS NEW (EIN) PARTNERSHIP
This unique partnership was established in 2008 between IGC and Everything
is New, promoter of the OptimusAlive! Oeiras music festival. Its main aim is to
bring science closer to Portuguese society and to raise funds for scientific research.
It is a strong example of how the private sector and society in general
may contribute to the progress of research and therefore to the future wellbeing
of all.
Optimus Alive Oeiras - IGC research fellowships
This partnership resulted in research fellowships that give young graduates
the opportunity to start their scientific careers, funded by Everything is
New. Over 300 young graduates around the country have applied to these
fellowships, since 2009. In 2011, Célia Rodrigues (25), and Diogo Santos (24),
were selected to develop one-year research projects in Biodiversity and Bioinformatics,
with the Population and Conservation Genetics and the Computational
Genomics IGC research groups, respectively. These projects are to
be carried out mainly at the IGC, and partly in Madagascar and France.
Public ceremony/ press conference at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG)
28 June 2011
IGC and Everything is New organised a ceremony to mark the launch of the
OptimusAlive! Oeiras-IGC 2011 Fellowships and to reward previous fellows.
Diogo Lucena (FCG Trustee), António Coutinho (IGC Director) and Álvaro Covões
(EIN president) took part, as did previous OptimusAlive! fellows and IGC
group leaders, who presented their research. According to Álvaro Covões
“It’s a pity that more companies don’t follow our example, so that young
students are given a chance to improve our world”.
IGC presence at OptimusAlive! Oeiras11
6 - 9 July 2011
Science, Music and Art came together for the fourth year running during
OptimusAlive! Oeiras11. During the four days of this major music and arts
event the main activities at the IGC corner were speed-dating with scientists,
a Biodiversity game (adapted from an original idea of the IGC Population and
Conservation Genetics group) and a photo exhibition. Around 60 IGC volunteers
made these activities possible for the approximately 700 young people
that visited the IGC space during the four days of this event.
Collection of Delta sugar packs, for the IGC 50th anniversary.
Media and public impact
In addition to the high impact this partnership has shown in the media over
the years (2008-2011: 55 online articles; 28 print; 10 broadcast items), this
project has also been very successful in the social networks. A Facebook
page was created (380 likes) to advertise, describe and show videos and
pictures of the IGC initiatives carried out at the festival and the daily life of
the winners of the fellowships during their research projects, both at the
IGC and in Madagascar, Malaysia and Principe. Videos coordinated by IGC are
available through the IGC YouTube channel and give an insight into the IGC
activities at three different editions of OptimusAlive! Oeiras.
The IGC area at the OptimusAlive! Oeiras11 music and arts festival.
IGC ANNUAL REPORT ‘11
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT IN SCIENCE
169