Founded in 2012, COMCEPT stands for Comunidade Céptica Portuguesa. It is a project dedicated to scientific skepticism around Portugal. COMCEPT seeks to promote critical and rational thinking about alternative medicine and pseudoscientific claims from a scientific point of view. Conspiracy theories and misinformation circulating in the media and social networks are also addressed themes.
COMCEPT’s activities include holding monthly meetings in Lisbon and Porto, called ‘Cépticos com Vox’ (Skeptics with a Voice), an annual national conference called COMCEPTcon with lectures and debates, and maintaining a blog that seeks to address extraordinary claims and provide citizens with a critical thinking toolbox.
Every year on April Fool’s Day, the ironic Flying Unicorn Awards (Prémios Unicórnio Voador) are presented according to three different categories. They are given to personalities or entities that have spread pseudoscience, superstition and other forms of misinformation in Portugal. The aim is to stimulate reflection on the prevalence and influence of misinformation in society.
On very rare occasions, the COMCEPT award is bestowed upon a person who has delivered a significant contribution to skepticism.