Marlene Rosa, researcher at ciTechCare, carried out an international scientific mobility period at Manchester Metropolitan University, in the United Kingdom—specifically at the Games Science Lab—between January 5 and March 5, 2026, as part of the FCT Mobility program.

The main focus of this mobility program was the development of serious games and gamification strategies aimed at vulnerable populations, such as older adults and people with cognitive or motor impairments—an area of interest research to Marlene Rosa, who is also CEO of AGILidades, a spin-off from the Polytechnic of Leiria.

Under the supervision of researcher John Henry, Marlene Rosa was involved in large-scale projects, with particular emphasis on the CARDIA project, where she worked on the use of biofeedback—namely real-time heart rate monitoring—to promote emotional regulation and physical activity, a critical area for the scientific validation of health interventions.

The researcher also had the opportunity to conduct a co-design workshop on game development for people with dementia, as well as an umbrella review on design guidelines for dementia, using the Player-Game-Therapy (PGT) model. Throughout the two-month mobility period, she also participated in scientific meetings with researchers and PhD students.

The mobility resulted in the submission of two scientific papers to leading international conferences and the publication of a dataset under Open Science practices, strengthening ciTechCare’s position in the field of digital technologies applied to health. In addition to scientific production, this experience contributed to consolidating international collaboration networks and to the development of future joint applications for European funding.

This international experience represents an important contribution to advancing ciTechCare’s research at the intersection of technology, health, and innovation, promoting the development of inclusive solutions based on scientific evidence.