Preface of the 6th Congress of the Egas Moniz Centre for Interdisciplinary Research—Immediate and Future Challenges to Foster One Health

1. Preface

The 6th Congress of the Egas Moniz Centre for Interdisciplinary Research was held in Caparica from 5 to 7 July under the theme “Immediate and future challenges to foster One Health”. Aligned with the key strategic orientations and expected impacts of research and innovation on society, economy, and science, as defined in the Horizon Europe strategic plan, the Congress provided an opportunity for researchers and health professionals to present and discuss the expected impact of their works in different areas. These areas included: (1) access to innovative, sustainable, and high-quality health care; (2) the use of new tools, technologies, and digital solutions for a healthy society; (3) the promotion of sustainable and circular management of natural resources while tackling pollution; and (4) the security of sustainable food and nutrition systems.

There were more than 400 registered participants, including 9 international invited keynote speakers, 35 oral communications and 150 poster presentations, after a thorough peer-review process (89% acceptance rate).

In line with the mission of the Egas Moniz School of Health and Science to improve the translation of research activities into educational practice, the Congress has also emerged as an opportunity to disseminate the research work of undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in the different graduation programs of the institution. A significant contribution to the training of young researchers has been made by the Proceedings Scientific Committee (

Table 1. Proceedings Scientific Committee.

Ana Isabel Fernandes (Coordinator)	Madalena Salema Oom
Fernanda Loureiro	Renata Ramalho
Íris Almeida	Sónia Vicente

) during the peer-review process, providing invaluable guidance on how to meet the standards of scientific writing and publication of research papers.

2. Statement of Peer-Review

Works were submitted online, until 2 June 2023, through the conference submission management system (Wordpress Plugin WP Abstracts Pro v.2.6.1 Abstracts & Manuscripts Submission) as abstracts (max. 500 words) and, optionally, also as short proceeding papers (up to 4 pages) to be published in this dedicated volume of MDPI’s Medical Sciences Forum journal. A total of 208 abstracts and 63 proceeding papers were submitted.

A thorough double-blind peer-review of the proceedings was conducted by a total of 73 reviewers (

Table 2. Board of Reviewers.

Aida Duarte	Diego González	Maria João Cebola
Aida Simões	Dora Ladislau	Miguel Correia
Alexandra Rodrigues	Evgenia Bekman	Miguel Garcia
Alexandre Santos	Gonçalo Martins Pereira	Nataniel Rosa
Alzira Cavacas	Graciliana Lopes	Nathalie Ferreira
Amândio Dias	Guilhermina Moutinho	Nuno Coelho
Ana Clara Ribeiro	Hélder Costa	Nuno Taveira
Ana Cristina Cardoso Neves	Helena Barroso	Patricia Cavaco Silva
Ana Cristina Manso	Inês Caldeira Fernandes	Paula Ravasco
Ana Cristina Pestana Neves	Isabel Barahona	Paulo Mascarenhas
Ana Paula Serro	Joana Costa	Paulo Oliveira
Ana Raquel Barata	Joana Garrido	Pedro Brandão
Ana Vieira	João Aguiar	Ricardo Alves
André Almeida	João Albernaz Neves	Ricardo Baúto
António Delgado	João Botelho	Sara Raposo
Carla Ascenso	João Couvaneiro	Sergio Félix
Carla Martinho Neto	João Dias	Sílvia Almeida
Carlos Zagalo	Jorge Caldeira	Sofia Jordão
Catarina Almeida	José Feliz	Susana Monteiro
Catarina Ramos	José Grillo	Teresa Costa
Cátia Caneiras	Júlia Antunes	Tiago Ferro
Cecília Rozan	Lucinda Bessa	Vanessa Machado
Cidália Castro	Mara Guerreiro	Xavier Melo
Cristina Soeiro	Margarida Miranda
Deolinda Auxtero	Maria do Rosário Dias

). The nominal list of those involved in the edition and reviewing process is included in the acknowledgments. To ensure the high publication standards of the journal, proceedings were reviewed by two independent scholars. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal, and considered (1) the aim, relevance, and originality of the work; (2) materials and methods; (3) ethical considerations; (4) scientific soundness; and (5) writing—clarity, text organization and formatting, referencing, and English language and style. Narrative literature reviews, study protocols, and systematic reviews without meta-analyses were not considered.

The authors were notified of the reviewers’ comments and asked for revision and resubmission until 21 June 2023. The Proceedings Scientific Committee was ultimately responsible for checking the corrections and making the final decision. Authors received a notification about the acceptance or rejection of their work by 26 June 2023.

The 49 accepted proceeding papers (77.8% acceptance rate) were presented at the conference (16 oral and 33 poster communications) and checked for plagiarism with Turnitin (www.turnitin.com) before being sent for publication. The volume editors also double-checked compliance with formatting rules.