CENTRE OF BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING

Description

The Centre of Biological Engineering (CEB in a PT acronym) is a research centre located at the University of Minho (Braga), integrated in the new Associated Laboratory on Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Microelectromechanical Systems (LABBELS). In the latest (2014) evaluation of R&D units by FCT, CEB was rated as Excellent, maintaining this grade since 2002.

CEB combines fundamental science – Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Molecular Biology – with Engineering Sciences to obtain value-added products or processes in the Food, Chemical, Biotech, and Environmental Industries. CEB is a unit aiming to be a strategic infrastructure for the development of R&D and innovation policies in the areas of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Biomaterials, Biomedical and Life Sciences, Environmental and Agricultural Sciences.

Currently CEB aggregates 150 PhD Researchers (125 integrated and 25 collaborators) of which 23 are faculty members of the University of Minho and 62 are faculty scientists. Core research is allocated to 4 interdisciplinary thematic areas that cover the molecular, cellular and process scales, viz.:

The excellence of the developed research at CEB, the competences in advanced training, the competitiveness in the capture of external funding, and the interaction with the stake-holders is confirmed by the following facts for the 2013- 2017 period:

  • 1250 peer-reviewed papers were published in journals, 78% of them in Scopus “Q1 journals”; 177 book chapters have been published, and 35 books were edited by members of CEB;
  • 89 PhD theses under the supervision of CEB integrated members were concluded;
  • the average income volume of awarded budget derived from research projects (including industry research income) from external funding bodies was around 5 M€/year;
  • more than 14 spin-off and startup companies were launched or continued their activities;
  • and 15 patents filled.

CEB acquired external recognition of its research activities and deploys regularly a number of actions concerning the dissemination of knowledge. Besides its high scientific Outcome (more details), CEB stands amongst the R&D units with the highest number of Citations per paper in the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering area (see comparisons), with several papers amongst the “Hottest and most read articles” (see a partial list). This is why our researchers are invited to take part in several Editorial Boards of journals (see a partial list), several Technical Committees (see a partial list), in scientific and professional Societies governance (see a partial list), numerous Scientific Committees of international conferences (see a partial list), and to act as Reviewers of a high number of scientific articles every year (see a partial list).

The CEB research impact into industry, with translation of technology into the market, is also a driving force for CEB researchers and this has been accomplished/consolidated through R&D projects in consortium and launching of more than 14 spin-off and startup companies.

Internationalization is also an important issue in CEB’s activities. CEB has established a network of collaborations all over the world that led to the development of joint research projects, joint academic programs (e.g. MIT-Portugal Program), exchange of students and scientists including joint thesis supervision. CEB attractiveness is recognized by hosting researchers from 45 different nationalities.

Reference: CEB develops a strong public dissemination policy, with specific outreach actions aimed to the media and the general public.

 

CENTRE OF BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING (s.f.). About Us. https://www.ceb.uminho.pt/About

Additional information

Website

https://www.ceb.uminho.pt/

Entity

Research center

Area

Chemistry

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