Science and technology in Portugal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Science and technology in Portugal is mainly conducted within a network of R&D units belonging to public universities and state-managed autonomous research institutions like the INETI - Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e Inovação, the Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e das Pescas and the LNEC - Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil. The funding of this research system is mainly conducted under the authority of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, namely through its foundation for science and technology, the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. The largest R&D units of the public universities (over 380 units in total which are distributed across 14 public universities) by number of publications, include the IPATIMUP and the Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, both at the University of Porto, the Instituto de Medicina Molecular at the University of Lisbon, or the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra, among others. Several other scientific fields are covered by specialized research organizations which are noted for their role as technology business incubators, like the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, the Instituto Pedro Nunes and Taguspark. The largest non-state-run research institutions in Portugal, include the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência and the Champalimaud Foundation. 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.
Within Europe and the European Union, Portugal has full membership into several pan-European scientific organizations like the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), ITER, and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
In 2001 Portugal was, for the first time in its history, one of the countries of excellence that contributed to the top 1% of the world's highly-cited publications. Spain was responsible for 2.08%, while Ireland and Greece accounted for 0.36% and 0.3%, respectively, also in 2001.[1]
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[edit] Accredited R&D centers belonging to higher learning institutions
Research centers belonging to higher learning institutions accredited by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, 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 |
Source: FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [1]
[edit] 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 - 20th century researcher who first described the familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy
- António Damásio - 20th/21th century researcher in several areas of the neurology, and a best-selling author of books which describe his scientific thinking
- Amato Lusitano - 16th century physician, discovered the circulation of the blood, and with Giambattista Canano was one of the first to observe and speculate about the venous valves found in the Azigos vein
- Egas Moniz - 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 - 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 - 16th century physician and naturalist, he was a pioneer of tropical medicine
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[edit] External links
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