FACULDADE DE MEDICINA DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA

Their core work

The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Lisbon is a leading Portuguese medical school conducting clinical and translational research across liver disease, cardiovascular prevention, sleep medicine, and environmental health. They specialize in biomarker discovery, clinical trial participation, and health data analytics — bridging patient-facing clinical work with large-scale European research initiatives. More recently, they have invested heavily in medical informatics, biostatistics, and AI-driven diagnostics, positioning themselves as a hub for data-driven health research in Southern Europe.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (2015–2018), FML focused on clinical and laboratory research — liver disease therapeutics (CARBALIVE), NAFLD biomarkers, health tourism technologies for elderly care, and environmental biomonitoring (HBM4EU). From 2020 onward, the focus shifted decisively toward data-driven and digital health: AI-powered sleep diagnostics, personalized cardiovascular prevention, population health informatics (PHIRI/COVID-19), and their flagship iSTARS project in medical informatics and biostatistics. The trajectory is clear — from bench-side clinical research toward computational medicine and health data infrastructure.

FML is rapidly building capacity in AI-driven clinical research and health data analytics, making them a strong future partner for projects requiring medical informatics expertise within a clinical faculty setting.

How they like to work

FML primarily joins large consortia as a participant or third party (8 of 9 projects), contributing clinical expertise and patient data to multi-center studies rather than leading them. Their single coordinated project — iSTARS, also their largest by far — signals a deliberate push toward leadership in medical informatics. With 282 unique partners across 40 countries, they are well-networked and comfortable operating in large, international consortia typical of health research.

FML has collaborated with 282 distinct partners across 40 countries, giving them one of the broader networks you'd expect from a medical faculty engaged in pan-European health studies. Their reach spans well beyond Southern Europe, reflecting the large consortium sizes typical of H2020 health and biomonitoring projects.

What sets them apart

What sets FML apart is the combination of a clinical medical faculty — with direct access to patients, clinical data, and hospital infrastructure — and a growing investment in medical informatics and AI. Most medical schools contribute clinical samples and patient cohorts; FML is actively building its own data science and biostatistics capacity through iSTARS. This dual profile makes them particularly valuable for projects that need both clinical grounding and computational analysis under one roof.

Highlights from their portfolio

• iSTARS
  Their only coordinated project and by far the largest (EUR 2.5M), focused on building medical informatics and biostatistics capacity — signals a strategic institutional priority.
• SLEEP REVOLUTION
  Combines AI/deep learning with clinical sleep medicine, sitting at the intersection of FML's traditional clinical strength and their emerging digital health focus.
• HBM4EU
  Major EU-wide biomonitoring initiative tracking chemical exposure across populations — demonstrates FML's ability to contribute to large-scale public health surveillance.