The new UNESCO Chair “Futures of Education for Health and Well-being”, formally established this Monday, 26 January, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, brings together three internationally renowned academic and scientific institutions, with NOVA Medical School standing out as the only Portuguese institution participating in this partnership.
Alongside Fundação Oswaldo Cruz – Fiocruz (Brazil) and Université Paris-Est Créteil – UPEC (France), the Chair positions itself as an international platform to strengthen the articulation between education, health, technology and sustainability. It promotes futures literacy and anticipatory governance applied to education, research and community engagement. Its purpose is to contribute to more just and effective responses to the accelerating changes affecting health — from social and environmental determinants to technological transformations, from emerging vulnerabilities to challenges related to trust and social cohesion — with a particular focus on equity and on solutions co-designed with local territories.
One of the initiative’s priorities is to develop and test new approaches to health education that prepare professionals and institutions to deal with uncertainty, complexity and systemic risk. The Chair aims to create more inclusive and transformative learning frameworks by combining scientific knowledge with foresight methodologies, scenario-building and citizen participation. Through education and advanced training programmes, it will empower educators, decision-makers and professionals to integrate futures thinking and intersectoral collaboration into practice, promoting innovative, impact-oriented pedagogical models. In parallel, it will produce open-access resources and tools (including a multilingual digital platform) to facilitate knowledge dissemination, methodological transfer and the replication of solutions across different contexts. The Chair will also strengthen connections between academia, services and communities by promoting participatory and laboratory-based projects in real-world settings, aligned with the ambition to accelerate sustainable innovation and improve well-being across the life course.
The UNESCO Chair “Futures of Education for Health and Well-being” brings together three public institutions with a strong scientific vocation and a commitment to serving society, combining complementary capacities within a Europe–Latin America triangular cooperation with global ambition:
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NOVA Medical School, the only Portuguese higher education institution involved in the project, contributes its vision for transforming medical education and health innovation, strengthening the link between science, clinical humanism and digital skills.
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Fundação Oswaldo Cruz – Fiocruz (Brazil) brings its recognised expertise in public health, applied science and territorial development, including close work with communities and equity-oriented knowledge networks.
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Université Paris-Est Créteil – UPEC (France) contributes innovation ecosystems in education and territorial engagement, promoting teaching, research and intervention models with tangible impact.
Together, the three institutions will mobilise international networks, strengthen synergies with other Chairs and initiatives within the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, and develop joint actions in research, education, capacity-building and dissemination, with potential for scale and replication across multiple geographies.
“For NOVA Medical School, the formalisation of this Chair with UNESCO represents a decisive step in strengthening our commitment to more inclusive knowledge societies,” says Pedro Póvoa, Dean of NOVA Medical School, adding that “education and research, grounded in innovative international collaborations and oriented towards sustainable development, are powerful drivers of transformation in health and well-being.” “We are very enthusiastic about joining such a challenging project and fully committed to placing our experience and expertise at the service of this initiative, actively contributing to innovation in health education and to the development of solutions with real impact in communities,” he concludes.
About the UNESCO Chair “Futures of Education for Health and Well-being”
The UNESCO Chair “Futures of Education for Health and Well-being” is a joint initiative of NOVA Medical School | NOVA University of Lisbon, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz – Fiocruz, and Université Paris-Est Créteil – UPEC, established in cooperation with UNESCO under the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme. Its mission is to strengthen research, education, training and community engagement by mobilising futures literacy and anticipatory governance to promote healthier, more equitable and more resilient societies.