Escola Superior de Biotecnologia da Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Faculty of Biotechnology, Portuguese Catholic University)
Address : Rua Arquiteto Lobão Vital, Apartado 2511, 4202-401 Porto
Contact person:
Profª. Paula Castro
Prof. Eduardo Luís Cardoso
Email: esb@porto.ucp.pt
Phone: +351 22 558 0001
ESB/UCP has a strong background in Education and R&D in the Food, Nutrition, Health, and Environmental areas, collaborating in national and international projects. ESB holds the Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF), a research unit that hosts over 100 researchers. Since its genesis focused on two major research lines: “Food: safer, healthier, more nutritious and more competitive food” and “Environment: Innovative approach to environment and sustainability challenges”. For the project, ESB/CBQF has excellent facilities to support plant and soil microbiology research, including fully equiped analytical labs and microbiology labs for microbial growth and for microbial analyses via molecular techniques. It has plant growth chambers for experimentation under controlled conditions, but the cooperation with greenhouses and farmers provides the conditions for field-experimentation. Examples from work carried out at ESB include the application of bioinoculants – mycorrhiza fungi and bacteria – as biotechnological tools for revegetation/requalification of degraded soil and agro-forestry practices.