Registration for the 2025/2026 edition of the MedCOOK Challenge is now open!
This initiative by NOVA Medical School, in partnership with Diaverum Portugal, challenges students to create complete menus—with starter, main course, and dessert—designed for people with kidney disease undergoing hemodialysis.
Each recipe must include details about the ingredients, quantities, preparation method, and nutritional calculation, maintaining an average cost of €6 per person. Participation is open to all students enrolled in a Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition Sciences or an Integrated Master's Degree in Medicine at any institution in the country, in teams of up to four members.
The five best proposals will be selected for professional production and recorded in a photo report by Diaverum Portugal, with subsequent publication on the initiative's social media channels. Voting will combine the jury's criteria (80%) and public preference (20%), with the winners to be announced on January 20, 2026.
Awards for this edition:
🏆 1st place: €210 WORTEN gift card
🥈 2nd place: €150 WORTEN gift card
🥉 3rd place: €120 WORTEN gift card
🎖 Honorable mentions for the other selected proposals
Applications can be submitted until November 17, 2025, by sending the documents with the recipes, in PDF format, to the email address
communityengagement@nms.unl.pt.
Find out all the information and rules for the Medcook Challenge 2025/2026
here.