This second issue of News@fmul coincides with the Christmas festive season and the coming of the New Year. For this reason I will begin by wishing everyone the traditional Christmas greetings and wishes for a New Year full of personal and professional success.
As a transition between the year now ending and the new one approaching, this issue will to some extent reflect a stock-taking of what has taken place and a prospect for the future.

The difficulties of the present times do not go unnoticed, and although they are not exclusively financial and economic, they have a relevant impact on the lives of institutions. The University is going through a period of unavoidable financial limitations, and the Faculty of Medicine will not remain immune to and isolated from that reality. This fact obliges us into a cautious and informed policy which, being a part of the context of the measure indispensable for the renewal of the University, do not form an impassable barrier to the strategy of transformation and modernisation of this medical school.

In this sense, two aspects deserve to be highlighted.
Firstly, the process of statutory reform being undertaken at the FMUL, following the approval of the new Statutes of the University. The FMUL Statutory Assembly will have its first meeting on the 22nd of December 2008. Opinions and contributions have been requested from all the members of the faculty, and there is a support secretariat for the President of the Statutory Assembly, which will centralize all of that potential traffic, that is expected to be intense, participational and innovating. This is an important moment in the life of the institution, which might decisively influence its future in drawing up the institutional framework that will form and allow all of the development that we consider to be desirable and possible. I am sure that the faculty will not waste this opportunity, and the Direction has done everything and will continue to do so in order to guarantee the fullest participation and total freedom of decision.

The second aspect I am pleased to mention during this time on the eve of the New Year was the official signing of the protocol of intent between the Directions of the Faculty, of the Santa Maria Hospital and of the Institute of Molecular Medicine for the forming of the Academic Medical Centre of Lisbon. This took place symbolically on the 8th of December, a holiday and one commemorating the anniversary of the hospital, in a ceremony presided over by the Minister of Health, Dr Ana Jorge and by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Professor José Mariano Gago. It was preceded by a short presentation by the three institutions signatories to the protocol, which showed the dynamic of renewal and their commitment to this project, which is strategic for their future development and for the maximising of all the available human and material resources.

The establishing of the Academic Medical Centre of Lisbon will mark a turning point in the organization of academic medicine in Portugal, creating the possible conditions for a common, structured and coherent action by the faculty, of its university hospital and of its institute devoted to research and innovation.

The future will thus be one of hope. It will form a challenge and an opportunity that we accept with a deep sense of responsibility.

José Fernandes e Fernandes