Fundação Vasco Vieira de Almeida established the Ana Maria Vieira de Almeida award with the support of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian to celebrate the late Ms. Ana Maria Vieira de Almeida. The award distinguishes research papers on innovative models for early childhood education, namely kindergarten, pre-school, and primary school, every two years.

Credits: Supplied Image;

The winning project of the 2nd Edition (2025) is a Book from the Emc2 project – ‘Exploring White crowberry Coastal Habitats’. This is an Educational project (MARE - Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente/ ARNET) about the white crowberry plant, an Iberian endemic species. This Project held at Portuguese national coastal zone, is aimed to raise awareness about this plant among students (6 -12 years old). They are engaged in the activities 'Field trip', 'Botany and Art' and 'Conservation' of white crowberry plant- Corema album (L.) D. Don. The Conservation activity is an important ongoing activity with support from Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária, IP (INIAV, I.P.), the NGO COREMA and other partners.

The Emc2 Project is funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), through the strategic projects UIDB/04292/2020 and UIDP/04292/2020 granted to MARE - Center for Marine and Environmental Sciences, and project LA/P/0069/2020 granted to the Associated Laboratory ARNET - Aquatic Research Network.

The book can be consulted at the following link:

> Reflexões sobre o ensino da botânica no Ensino Básico com base no Projeto Emc2 ‘Explorar Matos de Camarinha da Costa’ — Maria Alexandra Abreu Lima Award in a Radio podcast: https://marginal.fm/podcasts/sermon/4774-plano-educativo-sobre-a-planta-camarinheira-vence-premio

Link- FVVA - https://www.fundacaovva.org/en/ongoing-projects/ana-maria-vieira-de-almeida-award