Organisation

Alexandra de Castro Vasconcelos, MD, PhD, is a paediatrician and researcher at the Global Health & Tropical Medicine (GHTM) of the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (IHMT) at NOVA University Lisbon. She completed her PhD in 2023 in the field of Tropical Medicine, with years of dedication to the global health of children and young people.

She has competence in Pharmaceutical Medicine, recognised by the Portuguese Medical Association, and has been a consultant for INFARMED for over two decades. She currently chairs the Social Paediatrics Section (SPS) of the Portuguese Paediatric Society (SPP) and, since 2024, has been a member of Women in Global Health - Lusophone Community (WGH-CL).

Her areas of interest and expertise include tropical medicine and paediatric infectiology, pharmaceutical medicine and social paediatrics.

Paediatric Hospital Assistant at Coimbra Paediatric Hospital-CHUC. Member of NHACJR. Responsible for the Consultation of Children at Risk, also works in the General Paediatric Consultation. Paediatrician Consultant of the Functional Coordination Unit of the Paediatrics Hospital.

Pediatrician. Member of NHACJR at Hospital Prof. Doutor Fernando Fonseca. Member of Social Pediatrics Section of the Portuguese Pediatrics Society.;

Graduated by Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Barcelona  With a maste degree in Tropical Medicine by Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine/ Universidade de Lisboa Hospital Assistant at the Paediatric Intensive and special care unit of the Paediatric department of Hospital Prof. Doutor Fernando Fonseca, EPE (Amadora-Sintra) Board member of the Secção de Pediatria Social da Sociedade Portuguesa de Pediatria Professor of the integrated Master of medicine at Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.

Paediatrician. Vice-President of the Portuguese Social Paediatric Subcommittee (SPS-SPP).

Bachelor (1998), Master (2004) and PhD (2013) in Sociology by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto. Is a Professor at the Cooperativa de Ensino Superior de Serviço Social/Higher Institute of Social Work of Porto (CESSS/ISSSP), since 2002, where teaches in Social Work and Social Gerontology Degrees and in Social Intervention in Children and Youth at Risk of Exclusion Master. Since 2014 is also Invited Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology of Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto. It is Integrated Researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto, since 2004. Her research interests focus on Urban Sociology, particularly in the problem of fight for the right to the city and housing, in gentrification processes and social mixing and poverty and social exclusion of socially disadvantaged groups.

Speech therapist and  professor of higher education (Technology School of Health of OPorto, School of Health, University of Aveiro, and in collaboration, School of Health, University of Algarve and School of Health, Coimbra). Isabel Monteiro's interests are mainly focused in the field of communication disorders in children with hearing loss and their families and in a very incisive way in the development track that is early intervention.

Ivone Jacob has a degree in sociology from the Faculty of Arts, University of Porto, works at eventQualia since 2011 as Project Manager.

Neurodevelopment pediatrician and coordinator of the Center for Neurodevelopment at Hospital da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal.

Paediatrician at Hospital Fernando Fonseca. President of the Portuguese Social Paediatric Subcommittee (SPS-SPP).

Paediatrician at Centro Hospitalar Leiria Pombal. Member of the direction board of the Portuguese Social Paediatric Subcommittee (SPS-SPP).

Pediatrician - Hospital Garcia de Horta, Lisboa

Medical Coordinator at Dioscope

Sociologist. Professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (FLUP), the same institution where she was granted her Ph.D in Sociology. Researcher in the Institute of Sociology of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto (ISFLUP). Adjunct Professor at the Griffith Centre for Cultural Research (GCCR). In the last few years has extensive work published around the thematic of music in general and rock music in particular, paving the way for a new interpretative paradigm of the Portuguese contemporaneity.

Sara Melo has a PhD in Sociology by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto (FLUP). Is currently a professor at the Superior Institute of Social Work of Porto (ISSSP) and researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto (ISUP.

Sérgio Costa Araújo has been, since 2006, higher education teacher in Portugal. He is currently Invited Adjunct Professor at the city of Porto Polytechnic School of Education and a Collaborator Researcher at inED – Center for Research and Innovation in Education. Master in Development Studies in Social and Educational Sciences and recognized specialist in the field of social and behavioral sciences, he works mostly in socio-educational areas in thematic domains that includes fighting poverty and promoting social inclusion, with particular attention in the links between children's rights, poverty and exclusion. Over the past 23 years, in these domains, he has designed, monitored and implemented several action-research projects, particularly in critical urban territories in the Porto metropolitan area, seeing some of these actions recognized as examples of good practices by external entities. He has always developed his path in a European context and, therefore, has accumulated a unique knowledge about the path of social issues within the European Union over the last 23 years. He has participated in high-level meetings, including editions of the European Commission's European Forums on the Rights of the Child; The European Expert group on the transition from Institutional to Community-based Care, formally known as the Ad Hoc Expert Group on the transition from institutional care to community-based care; high-level conferences organized by presidencies of the Council of the European Union... He is a member of Eurochild and since 2009 a member of the European working group “Children in Alternative Care” (CiAC). Deinstitutionalization is one of his favoured subjects. He was also a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the pioneering Eurochild and UNICEF research project “DataCare Project” which comprehensively mapped child protection data systems in the 27 Member States of the European Union and the United Kingdom and which in 2023 is in its second phase of development. He is a member of the national Working Group on Child Poverty, promoted by EAPN / European Anti-Poverty Network. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Portuguese AjudAjudar – Associação para a Promoção dos Direitos das Crianças e Jovens (Association for the Promotion of the Rights of Children and Young People). In 2020, he consolidated his status as an expert on the topic “Poverty and Children's Rights in the Social Dimension of the European Union”, in the context of providing formal public evidence. He makes his own the assertion of Kant that he likes to quote from memory: theory without practice is empty, practice without theory is blind. Contact – sergiocostaaraujo@gmail.com

Medical expert in Legal Medicine. President of SPECAN. Full-Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (head of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences area) and at University Institute of Health Sciences. President of the Portuguese Society for the of Abused and Neglected Children. Full-Professor at University Institute of Health Sciences (CESPU) and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (head of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences area). Author of multiple literature (books, books’ chapters and articles) about children and adolescents abuse. Head of the North Delegation of the Portuguese National Institute for Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (2001-2014). Representative of Portugal at the European Council of Legal Medicine.