Science and technology in Portugal is mainly conducted within a network of
research and developmentThe phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
(R&D) units belonging to public universities and state-managed autonomous research institutions. There are also non-state-run research institutions and some private R&D projects developed by companies.
History
The
first university of PortugalHigher education in Portugal is divided into two main subsystems: university and polytechnic education. It is provided in autonomous public universities, private universities, public or private university institutes, polytechnic institutions and higher education institutions of other types...
was founded in 1290 as a
Studium GeneraleStudium generale is the old customary name for a Medieval university.- Definition :There is no clear official definition of what constituted a Studium generale...
in
LisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. It was focused on
the artsThe arts are a vast subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. It is a broader term than "art", which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts. The arts encompass visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts – music, theatre, dance and...
and
humanitiesThe humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
, but also included a
medical schoolA medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
since its foundation. During the 16th century, in the
Age of DiscoveryDuring the history of Portugal between 1415 and 1578, Portugal discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of Good Hope, discovered Brazil, established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, colonized selected areas of Africa, and sent the first direct European maritime...
, a more
mathematicalMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
educational approach flourished in this university with the creation of specialized courses and classes in the field. This included the appointment of
Pedro NunesPedro Nunes , was a Portuguese mathematician, cosmographer, and professor, from a New Christian family. Nunes, considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of his time , is best known for his contributions in the technical field of navigation, which was crucial to the Portuguese period of...
as mathematics teacher, in 1537, when the Portuguese university located in Lisbon was relocated back to Coimbra, and Nunes moved to the re-founded
University of Coimbra to teach mathematics, a post he held until 1562. This was a new post in the University of Coimbra and it was established to provide instruction in the technical requirements for navigation: clearly a topic of great importance in
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
at this period, when control of sea trade was the primary source of Portuguese wealth. Mathematics became an independent post in 1544. By the 18th century, under the
enlightenedThe Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
political leadership of the Marquis of Pombal, the University of Coimbra was modernized with the appointment of new professors, both Portuguese and foreigners, and the establishment of several facilities directed towards the teaching of the
natural scienceThe natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...
s. Also in the 18th century, one of the oldest learned societies of Portugal, the
Sciences Academy of LisbonThe Sciences Academy of Lisbon ' was created in 1779 in Lisbon, Portugal, as an institution dedicated to the advancement of science and learning with the goal of promoting academic progress and prosperity to the country...
, was founded in 1779.
Historically, within the scope of the now defunct
Portuguese EmpireThe Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
, the Portuguese founded in 1792 the oldest engineering school of
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
(the Real Academia de Artilharia, Fortificação e Desenho), as well as the oldest medical college of
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
(the Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de Goa) in 1842.
In 1911, the oldest non-military Portuguese university degree-conferring institution of engineering was founded - it was the
Instituto Superior TécnicoInstituto Superior Técnico is a reputed school of engineering, part of Universidade Técnica de Lisboa . IST is the largest and the most prestigious school of engineering in Portugal...
, in Lisbon, as well as new Science Faculties in the newly-founded
University of Lisbon and
PortoThe University of Porto is a Portuguese public university located in Porto, and founded 22 March 1911. It is the largest Portuguese university by number of enrolled students and has one of the most noted research outputs in Portugal...
.
Post-World War II
In 1949, the Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz, an early developer of the
cerebral angiographyCerebral angiography is a form of angiography which provides images of blood vessels in and around the brain, thereby allowing detection of abnormalities such as arteriovenous malformations and aneurysms....
, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
The
Instituto Gulbenkian de CiênciaThe is an international centre for biomedical research and graduate education, located in in Oeiras, Portugal. It was founded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1961. António Coutinho has been the Institute's Director since 1998....
(IGC) a international centre for biomedical research and graduate education, located in Oeiras,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, was founded by the
Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationThe Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a Portuguese private foundation of public utility whose statutory aims are in the fields of arts, charity, education, and science...
(FCG) in 1961. Its campus includes other research institutes in
biologyBiology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
,
biotechnologyBiotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
and
chemistryChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, with complementary research interests and facilities: protein structure and design, synthesis and theory of chemicals with biological interest, molecular microbiology, plant biotechnology, biotechnology, downstream processing, etc. The excellence of the IGC was attested by rankings published in 2010 and 2011, when the IGC was ranked as one of the Top Ten best Places for post-docs, by
The ScientistThe Scientist: Magazine of Life Sciences is a professional magazine intended for life scientists. Coverage includes reviews of widely noticed research papers, informing its audience of current research, updates to technology, updates to career information, profiles of scientists achieving...
- Faculty of 1000.
The
Champalimaud FoundationThe Champalimaud Foundation is a private Portuguese biomedical research foundation, which aims to support the biomedical sciences, focused in particular, on the fields of neuroscience and cancer...
, based in Lisbon, Portugal, was created at the bequest of the late Portuguese industrialist and entrepreneur,
António de Sommer ChampalimaudAntónio de Sommer Champalimaud was a Portuguese banker and industrialist who in 2004 was the wealthiest man in Portugal. He earned his fortune with insurance, banking and cement industries which were nationalized after the Carnation Revolution of 1974...
. At the end of 2004 it was officially incorporated as the Anna de Sommer Champalimaud and Dr. Carlos Montez Champalimaud Foundation, in honour of the benefactor’s parents. The Champalimaud Foundation's focus is on the fields of
neuroscienceNeuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
and
oncologyOncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...
. On October 5th 2010 the Foundation inaugurated a clinical and research centre in Lisbon - the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown.
In November 19, 2005, the
International Iberian Nanotechnology LaboratoryInternational Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory , in Braga, Portugal, is the first, and so far the only, fully international research organization in Europe in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology...
to be built in
BragaBraga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and the third major city of the country. Braga is the oldest Portuguese city and one of the oldest Christian cities in the World...
, was announced by the head of Government of Spain and the Prime Minister of Portugal at the end of the XXI Portugal-Spain Summit that took place in Évora.
Research and development
In
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, a network of research and development units belonging to public universities and state-managed autonomous research institutions like the
INETI - Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e InovaçãoThe Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e Inovação , usually known as INETI for short, is a state-run R&D institution in Lisbon, Portugal, with scientific and technological activities in areas like new systems, processes and products; environmental and sustainable management; geological...
, the ITN - Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear, the INRB - Instituto Nacional dos Recursos Biológicos, the
INSA - Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo JorgeThe Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge ' is a public institution under the Portuguese Ministry of Health, with self scientific, technical, administrative, and financial autonomy....
, the
IPO - Instituto Português de OncologiaThe Instituto Português de Oncologia Francisco Gentil, also known as Instituto Português de Oncologia and ' , is a state-run cancer hospital and research organization from Portugal. The I.P.O. has autonomous regional branches in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra.-External links:***...
, the LNEC - Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil and the
LIP - Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de PartículasThe Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics ' is a state-run Portuguese research laboratory created in 1986 under the sponsorship of the National Foundation for Science of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education...
, makes the core of Portugal's science and technology research output. The funding of this research system is mainly conducted under the authority of the
Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher EducationThe Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education , MCTES, is a Portuguese government ministry.-External links:*...
, namely through its foundation for science and technology, the FCT -
Fundação para a Ciência e TecnologiaThe Foundation for Science and Technology , FCT, is an organization within the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior in Portugal which funds scientific research activities, in particular in the areas of natural sciences, exact sciences, social sciences and humanities....
.
The largest R&D units of the public universities (over 380 units in total which are distributed across 14 public universities) by number of peer-reviewed publications and research grants, include the IPATIMUP, the
Instituto de Biologia Molecular e CelularThe Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Porto, Portugal, was founded in the 1990s as a multidisciplinary research institution in the fields of genetic diseases, infectious diseases and immunology, neuroscience, stress and structural biology.Most of its investigators are University of...
and the
Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences InstituteThe Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar - ICBAS is a medical school , veterinary sciences school and also a school of marine biology, located in Porto, Portugal...
, all of them at the
University of PortoThe University of Porto is a Portuguese public university located in Porto, and founded 22 March 1911. It is the largest Portuguese university by number of enrolled students and has one of the most noted research outputs in Portugal...
; the
Instituto de Medicina MolecularThe Instituto de Medicina Molecular , or IMM for short, is an associated research institution of the University of Lisbon, in Lisbon, Portugal....
at the
University of Lisbon; or the
Centre for Neuroscience and Cell BiologyThe Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology is a bioscience and biomedicine research institute of the University of Coimbra, in Coimbra, Portugal. Its researchers come from three faculties of the University of Coimbra: the Faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Science and Technology at the...
at the
University of Coimbra, among others. Private universities have a lower research output, however, there are a number of research units accredited by the Ministry and the FCT, these include the
Facial Emotion Expression LabThe Facial Expression Emotion Lab was founded by Armindo Freitas-Magalhães in 2003 and is a unit of the College of Health Sciences at the Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Porto, Portugal. The mission of the lab is to create new scientific knowledge about the human emotions and their forms of social...
at the University Fernando Pessoa. Although smaller and generally with less resources devoted to investigation than the universities, since after the
Bologna ProcessThe purpose of the Bologna Process is the creation of the European Higher Education Area by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe, in particular under the Lisbon Recognition Convention...
(2006/2007) which allowed the polytechnical institutions to award masters' degrees and required the admission of doctorate-level staff, an increasingly large number of Portuguese
polytechnicalA polytechnic is a higher education educational institution in Portugal created in the 1980s. After 1998 they were upgraded to institutions which are allowed to confer licenciatura degrees. Before then, they only awarded short-cycle degrees which were known as bacharelatos and didn't provide...
institutions have also established and expanded their own research facilities. However, polytechnic's limited research activities are very small when compared to the state-run universities due to both a lack of research budget and doctorate-level teaching staff and investigators. Several other scientific fields are covered by specialized research organizations which are noted for their role as technology
business incubatorBusiness incubators are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts...
s, like the
International Iberian Nanotechnology LaboratoryInternational Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory , in Braga, Portugal, is the first, and so far the only, fully international research organization in Europe in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology...
, the
Instituto Pedro NunesInstituto Pedro Nunes is a non-profit private organization for innovation and technology transfer based in Coimbra, Portugal. It is named after the Portuguese 16th century mathematician and professor Pedro Nunes, who lived in the city of Coimbra and worked for the local university.-IPN profile:The...
and
TagusparkTaguspark is a science and technology park located in the municipality of Oeiras, Greater Lisbon subregion, Portugal. In an area of approximately 3.6 km², 2 km² of which are occupied by the Park, there are several research and development labs, innovative startups and business incubators in a range...
, a
science parkA research park, science park, or science and technology park is an area with a collection of buildings dedicated to scientific research on a business footing. There are many approximate synonyms for "science park", including research park, technology park, technopolis and biomedical park...
. The largest non-state-run research institutions in
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, include the
Instituto Gulbenkian de CiênciaThe is an international centre for biomedical research and graduate education, located in in Oeiras, Portugal. It was founded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1961. António Coutinho has been the Institute's Director since 1998....
and the
Champalimaud FoundationThe Champalimaud Foundation is a private Portuguese biomedical research foundation, which aims to support the biomedical sciences, focused in particular, on the fields of neuroscience and cancer...
which recognises outstanding contributions to research in vision and associated areas through a major annual award.
The Champalimaud Foundation's research center at the mouth of the River Tagus in
LisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, opened in 2010 with diagnostic and treatment units for cancer patients on the lower floors and research labs above. The
IbercivisIbercivis is a distributed computing platform which allows internet users to participate in scientific research by donating unused computer cycles to run scientific simulations and other tasks...
, a
distributed computingDistributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
platform, based on BOINC, that allows all ordinary citizens to participate on scientific research in a direct way and in real time as voluteer donors of unused computer cycles is a joint scientific collaboration of the
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
governments. The Bial Foundation (
Fundação Bial), named after a Portuguese pharmaceutical company, awards one of Portugal's most noted prizes for scientific research in the area of health. A number of both national and multinational high-tech and industrial companies present in Portugal, are also responsible for research and development projects in different fields. The Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (Academy of Sciences of Lisbon), created in 1779, is one of the oldest learned societies in Portugal.
The sole Portuguese science-related Laureate, having been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949, was
Egas MonizAntónio Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz , known as Egas Moniz , was a Portuguese neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography...
.
Research and development output
In 2001 Portugal was ranked 28th among countries that contributed to the top 1% of the world's highly-cited publications. Accounting for 0.25% of these publications, Portugal ranked above South Africa (0.21%) and Iran (0.04%), but below Spain (2.08%), Ireland (0.36%), and Greece (0.3%).
2010 report
According to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2010, Portugal is one of the moderate innovators with a below average performance. Relative strengths are in open, excellent and attractive research systems, finance and support and innovators. Relative weaknesses are in firm investments, intellectual assets and outputs. Positive growth is observed for most indicators, and in particular for business R&D expenditure, PCT patent applications in societal challenges and community designs. A substantial decline can be observed for venture capital and non-R&D innovation expenditure over the 5 year reference period, although venture capital has almost doubled in 2009 with respect to 2008. Growth performance in open, excellent and attractive research systems, linkages & entrepreneurship and intellectual assets is above average. In the other dimensions it is below average.
2011 report
The European Innovation Scoreboard 2011, placed Portugal-based innovation in the 15th position, with an impressive increase in innovation expenditure and output.
Accredited R&D centers belonging to higher learning institutions
Research centers belonging to
higher learning institutionsHigher education in Portugal is divided into two main subsystems: university and polytechnic education. It is provided in autonomous public universities, private universities, public or private university institutes, polytechnic institutions and higher education institutions of other types...
accredited by
FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, as of 2004:
| Type of institution |
Number of research centers |
Number of institutions |
| Public universities |
384 |
14 |
| Public polytechnics |
8 |
15 |
| Catholic University |
14 |
1 |
| Private universities |
7 |
N/A |
| Other private institutions |
20 |
N/A |
| Total |
433 |
N/A |
Portugal's European integration in science and technology
Within
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(EU), Portugal has full membership into several pan-European scientific organizations like the
European Space AgencyThe European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...
(ESA), the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN),
ITERITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, which is currently building the world's largest and most advanced experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache in the south of France...
, and the
European Southern ObservatoryThe European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
(ESO). Portuguese scientists and technicians work in all of those organizations. In the period 2005-2007, Portugal was the EU member state with the highest growth rate in
research and developmentThe phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
(R&D) investment as a percentage of the GDP - a 46% growth. Portugal's R&D investment equals 1.2% of Portuguese GDP. This was the 15th largest allocation of funds as a percentage of the GDP for R&D, among the 27 EU member states in 2007.
Science museums, exhibits and divulgation
Notable organizations focused on science-related exhibits and divulgation, include the state agency
Ciência Viva, a programme of the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology to the promotion of a scientific and technological culture among the Portuguese population, the
Science Museum of the University of CoimbraThe Science Museum of the University of Coimbra ' gathers the historical scientific collections of several units of the University of Coimbra, in Coimbra, Portugal...
, the Museum of Natural History at the University of Lisbon, the
VisionariumVisionarium is a science museum with state-of-the-art interactive displays covering subjects ranging from the Portuguese voyages of discoveries to the interiors of microchips and cells...
and the
Lisbon OceanariumThe Oceanarium is an oceanarium in Lisbon, Portugal. It is located in the Parque das Nações, which was the exhibition grounds for the Expo '98.- Architecture :...
.
Science parks
With the emergence and growth of several
science parkA research park, science park, or science and technology park is an area with a collection of buildings dedicated to scientific research on a business footing. There are many approximate synonyms for "science park", including research park, technology park, technopolis and biomedical park...
s throughout the world which helped create many thousands of scientific, technological and knowledge-based businesses, Portugal started to develop several science parks across the country. These include the
TagusparkTaguspark is a science and technology park located in the municipality of Oeiras, Greater Lisbon subregion, Portugal. In an area of approximately 3.6 km², 2 km² of which are occupied by the Park, there are several research and development labs, innovative startups and business incubators in a range...
(in Oeiras), the Coimbra inovação Parque (in
CoimbraCoimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
), the Biocant park (in
Cantanhede), the Tecmaia (in
MaiaMaia Municipality is located in the Porto Metropolitan Area, Grande Porto subregion, in Norte Region, Portugal. The city of Maia includes the parishes of Gueifães, Maia and Vermoim, and has 39,949 inhabitants. The Maia Municipality comprises 135,049 inhabitants in 17 parishes for a total land...
), the Parque de Ciência e Tecnologia do Porto (in Santa Maria da Feira and
GuimarãesGuimarães Municipality is located in northwestern Portugal in the province of Minho and in the Braga District. It contains the city of Guimarães.The present Mayor is António Magalhães Silva, elected by the Socialist Party.-Parishes:-Economy:...
), the
Madeira TecnopoloMadeira Tecnopolo is a Free Science Park in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, .-ICEC Centre:Within the Tecnopolo park is the ICEC Exhibition and Congress Centre, the largest indoor arena on the island. As well as various conferences and exhibitions, including Portugal Fashion, it has also held events...
(in
FunchalFunchal is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira. The city has a population of 112,015 and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries.-Etymology:...
),
Sines TecnopoloThe Sines Tecnopolo is a Portuguese science park headquartered in Sines. It is linked with two public universities , two public polytechnics and the Sines Municipality.The park is devoted to technological transfer, entrepreneurship promotion and advanced...
(in
SinesSines is a coastal municipality in the district of Setúbal, in the Alentejo Litoral region of the Portuguese Alentejo. Its population in 2011 was over 14260 residents, with a total area of 203.3 km², concentrated on the municipal seat of Sines.-History:...
) and
ParkurbisParkurbis is a Portuguese science park in Covilhã. This organization is oriented to the support and fostering of new technology based businesses, providing support services to start ups and infrastructures that fit the needs of the new entrepreneurs and assure them the best conditions for the...
(in
CovilhãCovilhã is a city in Covilha Municipality in Centro region, Portugal. The city proper has 36,723 inhabitants, and the municipality has an area of 555.6 km² with a total population of 53,501, being composed of 31 parishes. It is located in the Cova da Beira subregion, in the district of...
). Companies locate in the Portuguese science parks to take advantage of a variety of services ranging from financial and legal advice through to marketing and technological support.
Noted contributors to science and technology
Some examples of notable Portuguese people who had made important contributions to science and technology, becoming in their time internationally known within their respective field, include:
- Corino Andrade
Mário Corino da Costa Andrade was a leading twentieth century Portuguese neurologist and researcher who first described the familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy syndrome that later came to be associated with his name .Corino was a founder of the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, a...
- 20th century researcher who first described the familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy
- António Damásio
Antonio Damasio is David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where he heads USC's Brain and Creativity Institute and Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute. Prior to taking up his posts at USC, in 2005, Damasio was M.W...
- 20th/21st century researcher in several areas of the neurology, and a best-selling author of books which describe his scientific thinking
- Amato Lusitano
João Rodrigues de Castelo Branco, better known as Amato Lusitano and Amatus Lusitanus , was a notable Portuguese Jewish physician of the 16th century. Like Herophilus, Galen, Ibn al-Nafis, Michael Servetus, Realdo Colombo and William Harvey, he is credited as making a discovery in the circulation...
- 16th century physician, discovered the circulation of the blood, was one of the first to observe and speculate about the venous valves found in the Azigos vein
- Froilano de Mello
Froilano de Mello was an Indo-Portuguese microbiologist, medical scientist, professor, author and an independent MP in the Portuguese parliament....
- 20th century microbiologist and medical scientist
- Egas Moniz
António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz , known as Egas Moniz , was a Portuguese neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography...
- 20th century Nobel Prize in Medicine "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses", he also was a pioneer in the development of cerebral angiography
- Pedro Nunes
Pedro Nunes , was a Portuguese mathematician, cosmographer, and professor, from a New Christian family. Nunes, considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of his time , is best known for his contributions in the technical field of navigation, which was crucial to the Portuguese period of...
- 16th century mathematician, one of the greatest of his time, he is best known for his contributions in the technical field of navigation
- Garcia de Orta
Garcia de Orta was a Portuguese Renaissance Sephardi Jewish physician and naturalist. He was a pioneer of tropical medicine.- Life :...
- 16th century physician and naturalist, he was a pioneer of tropical medicine
See also
- Agência de Inovação
The Agência de Inovação is a Portuguese government agency funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation. The agency tries to promote innovation and technological development and to facilitate cooperation between research and...
- Higher education in Portugal
Higher education in Portugal is divided into two main subsystems: university and polytechnic education. It is provided in autonomous public universities, private universities, public or private university institutes, polytechnic institutions and higher education institutions of other types...
- Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia
The Foundation for Science and Technology , FCT, is an organization within the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior in Portugal which funds scientific research activities, in particular in the areas of natural sciences, exact sciences, social sciences and humanities....
External links