The event, now in its fourth edition, will bring together twelve speakers from four nations at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis to discuss adapted sports with physical education professionals, doctors and physiotherapists.

Among the confirmed speakers are International Paralympic Committee Sports Science Committee chair Yves Vanlandewijck and Irineu Loturco, who is a physiologist to Brazil's national Paralympic athletics team and manager of the High Performance Sports Centre in São Paulo having previously worked with some of the country's biggest football teams such as Corinthians, Palmeiras and Atlético MG.

The University of Loughborough's Brett Smith, who is editor of the Qualitative Research in Sports, Exercise and Health magazine and has written more than 100 publications on sports for people with impairments, will also feature at the conference, as will Belgian sports policy professor Veerle De Bosscher, dietician Elizabeth Broad and Unicamp university human anatomy doctor Edison Duarte.

"These are all top level professionals in the sports field who have published several papers on this topic," Alberto Martins da Costa, coordinator of the Brazilian Paralympic Academy, said.

"The purpose is to show what kind of research is being carried out in Brazil and abroad.

"The varied themes will appeal to all kinds of interests in sports science.

"The academic area is of fundamental importance to Para-sports.

"Through scientific studies, we gain further knowledge in medicine, physiology, biomechanics and several other areas related to sports.

"So the conference will directly contribute to the development of Para-sports."

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