Federico Herrera and Manuela Pereira received the Ideias para a Sustentabilidade em Ciências prize to develop a course aimed at fostering autonomy and potential labor integration for individuals with Down syndrome.

Federico Herrera and Manuela, group leader of the Cell Structure and Dynamics Lab and the Bioenergteics Lab, respectively, applied last December to the Ideias para a Sustentabilidade em Ciências prize, a call promoted within the Ciências Sustainability Week, designed to distinguish and award initiatives from members of Ciências ULisboa that can contribute to sustainability on campus and its interaction with the city of Lisbon.

The name of the project proposed by the two BioISI researchers is  Autonomy21@FCUL: Autonomy development course for individuals with Down syndrome in Ciências ULisboa and its main goal is to develop a course aimed at fostering autonomy and potential labor integration for individuals with Down syndrome (T21). The idea of creating such course comes from the experience that both researchers have from the Autonomy 21, a project currently running (involving Ciências ULisboa and the Pais 21 association), which aims to promote the integration of young people with T21 into the job market, who often lack educational or employment opportunities upon completing compulsory education, therefore hindering their vocational aspirations and life projects.

According to Federico Herrera: “To enhance the likelihood of success regarding this subject, it is crucial to learn from the expertise of international specialists who have already developed similar education and employability courses at universities”. This is why the prize won by the researchers will be used to organize one-day event featuring 2-3 international experts with proven experience in organizing and coordinating post-compulsory education courses for young adults with T21 in a university setting and, thus, can apply it to develop one such course in Ciências ULisboa.

Manuela Pereira and Federico Herrera receiving the prize by the hands of Jorge Relvas (one of Ciências ULisboa’s Vice-Directors)

Some of the researchers who comprise the project’s team