The BIAL Foundation was created in 1994 by the BIAL pharmaceutical company in together with the Council of Rectors of the Portuguese Universities. BIAL Foundation’s mission is to foster the scientific study of the human being from both the physical and spiritual perspectives. It is managed by representatives from both institutions.
Among its activities the BIAL Foundation manages the Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica, created in 1984, which is focused on the recognition and enhancement of basic and clinical research. Over 18 editions it has distinguished 102 written works of major impact on medicine and has become acknowledged as a prestigious prize in the Health field. In 2018, the BIAL Foundation created the BIAL Award in Biomedicine, in order to extend its scope of activity and to recognize the most outstanding and relevant discoveries that have been made in the broad biomedical field. This prize has been awarded, since 2019, every two years alternating with the Prémio BIAL de Medicina Clínica.
In 2020, to honour the memory of the physician and great immunologist Maria de Sousa, the Portuguese Medical Association and the BIAL Foundation decided to promote, in partnership, the Maria de Sousa Award, to support young Portuguese researchers, up to the age of 35, with scientific projects in the area of Health Sciences, including an internship in an international center of excellence.
The BIAL Foundation also supports scientific research projects for the neurophysiological and mental study of the human being, in the areas of Psychophysiology and Parapsychology. To date the BIAL Foundation has already supported 775 projects, involving more than 1600 researchers from 29 countries. The research funded by the BIAL Foundation in the areas of Psychophysiology and Parapsychology from 1994 to April 2020 has resulted in the publication of 1555 papers, 1186 of which in indexed journals (in Scopus or Web of Science) and 991 in impact factor journals. Almost half of the papers were published in journals that ranked in the first quartile (Q1) in their subject area. By April 2020, 1025 papers were cited on average 20 times.
In 1996 the BIAL Foundation began to organize the Symposia entitled "Behind and Beyond the Brain", a Forum that gathers every two years world-renowned experts in neurosciences and parapsychology, as well as several researchers supported by the Foundation.
In addition, the Foundation has an online database that can be accessed by the scientific community and by the general public here.
Classified as a non-profit institution of public utility, the BIAL Foundation includes among its patrons the Portuguese President, the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities and the Portuguese Medical Association.
António Damásio, President
Los Angeles
Osborne Almeida
Munich
Mario Beauregard
Arizona
Fabrizio Benedetti
Turin
Dick Bierman
Amesterdam
Olaf Blanke
Lausanne
Jason Braithwaite
Lancaster
Richard Broughton
Northampton
Etzel Cardeña
Lund
Maria do Carmo Fonseca
Lisbon
James Carpenter
N. Carolina
Miguel Castelo-Branco
Coimbra
Alexandre Castro-Caldas
Lisbon
Axel Cleeremans
Brussels
António Coimbra
Porto
Rui Costa
New York and Lisbon
Hugo Critchley
Brighton and Sussex
John Cryan
Cork
Rodrigo Cunha
Coimbra
Hanna Damásio
Los Angeles
Ronald de Kloet
Leiden
Peter Fenwick
London
Rainer Goebel
Maastricht
Bruce Greyson
Virgínia
Morten Kringelbach
Oxford
Stephen LaBerge
Stanford
Antoine Lutz
Lyon
Julia Mossbridge
Evanston
Rui Mota Cardoso
Porto
Craig Murray
Lancaster
Catarina Resende Oliveira
Coimbra
Morten Overgaard
Aarhus
Joana Palha
Minho
Dean Radin
California
Amir Raz
Montreal
João Relvas
Porto
Sidarta Ribeiro
Rio Grande do Norte
Christopher A. Roe
Northampton
Stefan Schmidt
Friburgo
Gary Schwartz
Tucson
Alcino Silva
Los Angeles
Mário Simões
Lisbon
Peter St. George-Hyslop
Toronto
Robert Stickgold
Harvard
Jessica Utts
Irvine
Eus Van Someren
Amesterdam
Rufin VanRullen
Toulouse
Caroline Watt
Edinburgh
Menno Witter
Trondheim
Robin Wooffitt
York
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