CIBIO-BIOPOLIS Researcher Cátia Monteiro awarded “la Caixa” Foundation postdoctoral fellowship
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Cátia Monteiro has been selected for the "la Caixa” Foundation’s Junior Leader programme, 2025 cohort, which supports outstanding researchers pursuing postdoctoral projects in Portugal and Spain. Her research will investigate how climate change and grazing influence the resilience and functioning of coastal marine ecosystems.
Cátia Monteiro has been selected for the "la Caixa” Foundation’s Junior Leader programme, 2025 cohort, which supports outstanding researchers pursuing postdoctoral projects in Portugal and Spain. Her research will investigate how climate change and grazing influence the resilience and functioning of coastal marine ecosystems.
CIBIO-BIOPOLIS researcher Cátia Monteiro has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship through the Junior Leader programme of the "la Caixa” Foundation, one of Europe’s leading private initiatives supporting scientific research.
The fellowship will support the development of the project "Changing interactions – how warming and grazing shape resilience and function of coastal foundation species”, which will be carried out within the Research Network in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology (InBIO). The project aims to understand how rising ocean temperatures and changes in ecological interactions affect the ability of key marine species to withstand and recover from environmental change.
Coastal ecosystems play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity, protecting shorelines and providing essential services to society. However, they are also among the environments most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Cátia Monteiro’s research will examine how global warming and herbivore grazing pressure influence the resilience of foundation species that support marine ecosystems. The project seeks to generate knowledge to predict future ecological changes and inform more effective conservation strategies.
"This fellowship is a defining moment in my career, given the prestige of receiving a La Caixa fellowship but also given the access to a top training programme in leadership and a network of fellows who are leaders in their respective fields. With this fellowship I will broaden my research skills by gaining expertise in new fields and also give opportunities to students to work in this multidisciplinary, international project" says Cátia Monteiro.
A researcher at BIOPOLIS/CIBIO, Cátia Monteiro has built her scientific career in marine ecology, focusing on how coastal organisms respond to environmental change. Her work combines biodiversity research, biogeography and ecophysiology to identify the mechanisms that enable or limit species distribution and resilience against the backdrop of global warming.