The Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Health and Human Development (CIDESD) was founded in 2007 and works as a cross-institutional unity of applied research, located all over the Portuguese territory.
The CIDESD activity plans are carried by 132 members (70 integrated and 62 collaborators), spread by three research communities: CreativeLab, STRONG, and GERON. This R&D Unit has built a strong national and international network, counting with different bilateral agreements with diverse institutions worldwide. The goals of CIDESD are articulated in three major domains:
- Research. The research projects and activities of the CIDESD are articulated in three research communities: A) CreativeLab: focused on developing performance indicators related to human collective behaviour and creativity in sports, helping to explain the mechanisms that regulate the decision-making process and contribute to understanding the complexity of human mind. B) STRONG: focused on describing and predicting the human movement and their relationship to sports performance using the analysis of genetic, physiological and biomechanical models able to describe and predict the human movement and their relationship to sports performance. Also, there is an emphasis on computational fluid dynamics applied to water activities and special populations. C) GERON: this program is focused on the relationship between physical activity, exercise and health across the lifespan with particular emphasis on aging and chronic diseases.
- Community Intervention. Providing services to the community and developing effective interventions specifically in the domains of sports performance and health promotion in the domains of physical activity and exercise programs related to health promotion.
- Continuous Education. CIDESD members are involved in several educational activities, namely with a close cooperation with the First Degree courses, Master Courses and Ph.D. courses accredited by the Portuguese Agency of Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education. The R&D unit delivers several educational programs to enhance the knowledge and skills under the domain of sports sciences and health.
Therefore, our research consortium seeks to continuing developing these activities, allowing contributing with specific expertise under the sports sciences domain.
Daniel Marinho