The PhD in Medical Sciences is proposed by the Católica Medical School and has the collaboration of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and the Faculty of Health Sciences and Nursing of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

This collaboration will make it possible to offer excellent and competitive postgraduate training, with a wide variety of training options, allowing students to develop their PhD in various areas of Medical Sciences, supported by sustained biomedical research. It offers diversified training in Medical Sciences, particularly in medical and dental specialities recognised by the Ordem dos Médicos and the Ordem dos Médicos Dentistas.

The PhD in Medical Sciences comes about in the context of the recently created Católica-Luz Clinical Academic Centre (CAC - CL), which aims to boost the synergies that already exist between the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, including its teaching and research units: Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Health (CIIS) and Católica Biomedical Research Centre (CBR), the Luz Saúde group, the Hospital da Luz, the Hospital da Luz Learning Health and the União das Misericórdias Portuguesas, entities that integrate the teaching, research and medical care components and develop joint collaboration strategies.

The main differentiating factor of this PhD is the integration of various medical areas, resulting from the close collaboration between medicine and dentistry, as well as the support of biomedical research and the experience of transferring knowledge and practices to the population, realised through the involvement of various health professionals. A doctoral programme of this scope is innovative at national level.

The Luz Saúde group is one of the largest private healthcare groups in Portugal and already has a fruitful collaboration with UCP in the training of future doctors and nurses. Through Hospital da Luz Learning Health, the Luz Saúde group promotes research and clinical training in one of the largest simulation centres in Europe and participates in various clinical trials, both on the initiative of the researcher and promoted by external institutions, presenting significant scientific output.

Teaching, assistance and, above all, research activities will be supported and enhanced by two research centres: CIIS and CBR. CIIS, the research unit that includes the three organisational units collaborating on this PhD, is interdisciplinary and includes several platforms dedicated to biomedical, medical and dental research. CIIS's CatolicaMed platform promotes clinical and translational research and is positioned as an account centre for biomedical research.

This articulation between research, teaching and clinical practice within the context of the CAC - CL allows the creation of this PhD, which benefits from all the resources of the partner institutions, allowing the generation of new projects and contributing to advances in the knowledge and teaching of Medicine in Portugal, promoting teamwork, publication and communication in science, always with student-centred teaching and assessment methodologies.

This program is supported by the TRAINING4RESILIENCE project, funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU), STEAM Youth Impulse and Adult Impulse, as part of the Recovery and Resilience Programme (PRR).