Marlene Nunes Silva is the the Director of the National Programme for Physical Activity Promotion of the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health. She is also a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport (FEFD-ULHT) Lisbon, with high record of international scientific publications. She has published more than 65 peer-reviewed articles (Scopus h-index 20; google Schoolar 30), and was a co-author of 4 international books Chapters and 1 national book
She is a clinical psychologist, post-graduated in health promotion, who received her PhD in Exercise and Health in 2010. In the same year, she also received a Young Investigator Award in Sports Sciences. Her research revolves around the field of motivational, self-regulatory, and behavioral predictors of physical activity and healthy lifestyles. The training of health professionals concerning motivational practices, and the development of tools in this regard are additional areas of interest.
She is the Co-PI of PAC-WOMAN (recently funded by FCT), a national project that will test a physical activity behaviour change intervention for post-menopausal breast cancer survivors. On the recent past she worked as the national coordinator of EuroFIT, an European Commission funded project (FP7), and also participated in several other European and FCT-funded projects. Other activities included the presentation of scientific results on numerous international and national scientific conferences and the organization of international symposia. She is a regular reviewer for leading international journals in her field.
Alongside her research activity, Marlene N. Silva is part of several scientific boards such as the doctoral program in Exercise and Health at ULHT University; Advisory board for the development of the national Health Plan 2020-2030; Invited Expert for the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Handbook for mActive, amongst others
She served as supervisor and co-supervisor of several master and PhD theses (1 with an FCT grant). She participates regularly as a discussant in PhD theses committees. She was a co-author of multiple student handbooks and technical reports.
She is also a certified trainer in Health Behaviour Change (CCPFC/RFO-24239/08), who develops, applies and assesses training programs for health and exercise professionals working in health behaviour change. She has been involved in multiple community extension activities (e.g., communitarian health programs at the university, health care units, and football clubs) and knowledge translation activities for the general public (e.g. via regular collaboration with national media channels).

On the 12th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in Ghent, Belgium, Pedro Teixeira officially started his term as President of the Society. He will oversee an Executive Committee of ten people, which also includes António Palmeira, starting a three-year term as Member-at-Large. The mission of the ISBNPA is to stimulate, promote and advocate innovative research and policy in the area of behavioral nutrition and physical activity toward the betterment of human health worldwide. More information HERE.

The PANO research group participated in the 5th International Conference on Self-Determination Theory in Rochester, between June 27-30th. With the purpose of better understanding and engaging human motivation, this conference brings together experts from across the world. Pedro Teixeira presented the keynote lecture “Self-determination theory and motivational interviewing: Where to from here?”. A workshop for healthcare professionals titled “Physical activity, eating behavior, and weight control” was offered by Pedro Teixeira, Marlene Silva, Eliana Carraça and Marta Marques. Additionally, the PoEMA (Promotion of Exercise, Motivation and Autonomy) study was first presented in a free communication by Marlene Silva. More information about this conference HERE.

During June and July, Marta Marques described the new FCT-funded project "An Open-Access Repository of Self-Regulation Measures for Exercise, Eating, and Weight Control" at the National Conference on Psychology Research and at the Iberoamerican Conference in Health Psychology. More information on this project HERE.

Maarten Vansteenkiste presented a seminar at FMH titled “Self-regulation of health behavior: Why do we do what we do?”on July 10th. The talk described the application of self-determination theory to health behaviors, and was attended by over 50 people, including 26 doctoral students at FMH.

PANO was represented at the 27th European Health Psychology Conference in Bordeaux (July 17-20th). Marta Marques participated with a presentation titled "Long-term results of a self-regulation based physical activity intervention for chronic fatigue patients" and a poster titled "Self-regulation mediators of success in obesity interventions: A systematic review for the SPOTLIGHT project". An overview of the conference is available HERE.

On behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA), Pedro Teixeira attended the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Nutrition and Noncommunicable Diseases in the Context of Health 2020, on July 4-5th in Vienna, Austria. This conference brought together health ministers, experts and representatives of civil society and intergovernmental organizations with the purpose of discussing policies on diet, nutrition and physical activity to address noncommunicable diseases.

The PANO research group was represented at the 13th World Congress of Sport Psychology, on July 21-26th, in Beijing, China. Pedro Teixeira participated with a presentation titled “Promoting lasting weight control based on self-determination theory” in the context of a symposium named “Health behavior change interventions in real life: Are we moving forward?”. More details about this conference HERE.