The “Science 4 COVID19” portal is an initiative of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (AICIB), in partnership with public and private health authorities and scientific research institutions, to mobilize the scientific communities in joint Research and Development (R&D) projects and activities aimed at combating COVID-19 in line with the National Directorate of Health (DGS) National Preparedness and Response to Disease Plan, as well as with the strategies of other European and international health authorities. The portal groups metadata, datasets or links, problem registration, research results in epidemiological surveillance and other anonymous public health data necessary to combat the coronavirus epidemic, such as clinical, analytical and demographic results.

The national scientific and technological community has mobilized all its human and material capacity to respond to the current outbreak of the new coronavirus and COVID-19 and to the situation of increasing uncertainty and social alarm produced. This mobilization has been translated into innumerable types of action, in the most diverse scientific areas, some with expression at local level, others at national level, ranging from the proposal of ideas that need the adhesion of partners for its execution, through the provision of personal protection material, up to the use of laboratories and equipment to carry out direct combat measures on the ground.

Saluting and encouraging all the spirit and capacity already demonstrated by the scientific and technological community, namely in its capacity to mobilize and lead measures involving actors from the private and social sector, it is important to establish a platform for the promotion, articulation and coordination of all this effort, so that it can have a greater expression and effectiveness in the direct and indirect combat to the current crisis situation.

In this context, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) intends to implement a portal that allows the compilation of ideas, ongoing actions, identification of available installed capacity and working groups, providing online collaborative work on these elements, as well as as mechanisms of direct communication between users in order to promote interaction and collaboration between all.