Our Partners

Sporting Clube de Portugal (SCP) is a premier sports club in Portugal, based in Alvalade, Lisbon. Founded in 1906, SCP has several teams and individual athletes competing in football, indoor football, handball, basketball, athleticism, field hockey, judo, goalball, esports and many more. SCP and SIMERG cooperate through curricular interships for Msc and PhD students associated with our research group.

O Instituto para os Comportamentos Aditivos e Dependências, I.P. (ICAD, IP), tem por missão prevenir e reduzir os comportamentos aditivos e as dependências, assegurar o tratamento, a redução de riscos e a minimização de danos e a reinserção social, bem como fomentar a capacitação e formação diferenciada, a investigação e a inovação nesses domínios. The Portuguese Institute for Adictive Behaviours and Dependencies (ICAD) is a public institute with the mission to prevent and reduce addictive behaviours and dependencies, ensure treatment, risk reduction, harm reduction and social reintegration, aswell as foster capacity building and non-formal education, research and innovation in these dimensions. ICAD and SIMERG work together in several projects to understand and educate about toxic and addictive behaviours in esports, such as gambling addiction and deregulated consumption.

The International Esports Federation was established in 2008 by the national esports federations of South Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland. Today it has 146 national member federations including our partner, the Portuguese Esports Federation. Together with IESF we aim to keep contributing to the development of the esports industry by adding value in the form of high quality research.

The Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI) is a non-profit organization first created in 1995 in Brazil and expanded to Portugal in 2013. CDI Portugal has 3 main projects - Apps for Good, Centers for Digital Citizenship and RECODE. CDI is our partner in bringing better gaming environments to young gamers through the LAENOG and ENHANCE projects and through the iniciative CDI Vai às Escolas where our research fellows help raise awareness and build capacity for young gamers in videogaming, working with toxicity, addiction, gambling, privacy and other issues of the online gaming environment

The SIMERG and the Portuguese Electronic Sports Federation (PESF) have formalized a protocol of strategic collaboration in the field of esports, to promote studies and scientific research in this domain. Both entities are working together to establish the first national laboratory of scientific research in electronic sports - the Esports Lab. This multidisciplinary facility is dedicated to driving the development of esports through applied research, technology development, education, and innovation, thereby fostering research growth in esports in Portugal. Additionally, this partnership includes the launch of a Postgraduate Course in Esports and Digital Communities, as well as the integration of students from FMH UL into internships at the Portuguese Electronic Sports Federation.

A protocol was designed between the SIMERG and BHOUT, a Portuguese startup pioneering in the intersection between gaming and fitness, to explore the esports’ effects on the human body and use insights to gain knowledge on how to leverage innovating products onto better esports performance and individual well-being.