NOVA Medical School was selected for the inaugural edition of the Journalism Science Alliance collaborative research grants with the Factness project – Facts on health, nutrition, and physical exercise. This initiative is developed in partnership with the newspaper PÚBLICO. The project, funded with €50,000, was one of four chosen in Portugal in a competition that received 162 applications from 54 countries.
NOVA Medical School, through the team led by Professor Conceição Calhau, nutritionist and researcher, participates in Factness with the mission of analyzing and counteracting the dissemination of misleading content in the areas of food, nutrition, physical exercise, and well-being.
For the professor, the situation is worrying: “Misinformation in health, especially in the area of nutrition, has become a silent threat, driven by social media that promote quick, unfounded, and potentially dangerous solutions through simplistic messages with no scientific basis.”
Over the course of eight months, the NOVA Medical School team will work closely with PÚBLICO to develop an investigative journalism project based on scientific evidence. The focus will be on the scientific analysis of claims made by influencers linked to fitness, nutrition, and healthy lifestyles, assessing their scientific basis and simultaneously mapping the food supplement market.
The journalistic component of the project is headed by Teresa Firmino, science editor at PÚBLICO, who emphasizes the importance of accuracy: “In an age of misinformation spreading at lightning speed on social media, this project seeks to put journalism—credible and verified information—at the forefront.”
The initiative also includes Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) specialist Inês Narciso, who will contribute to understanding the mechanisms by which disinformation spreads in the digital environment.
To ensure robustness and a diversity of perspectives, Factness will have an advisory board comprising experts from various fields, including consumer law, social psychology, neuroscience and data science.
The team will also explore innovative communication formats that combine verified scientific information with elements of comedy, with the aim of reaching audiences who primarily consume information on digital platforms. “We believe that this joint effort constitutes an essential step towards protecting public health and strengthening trust in knowledge, science and responsible communication,” says Conceição Calhau.
With this award, NOVA Medical School reinforces its commitment to health literacy and the development of communication strategies based on scientific evidence, contributing to more informed, critical and healthy societies.