Science and technology in Portugal is mainly conducted within a network of research and development (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 Portugal was founded in 1290 as a Studium Generale in Lisbon. It was focused on the arts and humanities, but also included a medical school since its foundation.
During the 16th century, in the Age of Discovery, a more mathematical educational approach flourished in this university with the creation of specialized courses and classes in the field. This included the appointment of Pedro Nunes 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 Portugal at this period, when control of sea trade was the primary source of Portuguese wealth. Mathematics became an independent post in 1544. In the 17th century, military engineering teaching was also established in the Fortification, Artillery and Drawing Royal Academy of Lisbon.
By the 18th century, under the enlightened 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 sciences. Also in the 18th century, one of the oldest learned societies of Portugal, the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, was founded in 1779.
Historically, within the scope of the now defunct Portuguese Empire, the Portuguese founded in 1792 the oldest engineering school of Latin America (the Real Academia de Artilharia, Fortificação e Desenho), as well as one of the oldest medical colleges of Asia (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 Técnico, in Lisbon, as well as new Science Faculties in the newly founded University of Lisbon and Porto.
Post-World War II
In 1949, the Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz, an early developer of the cerebral angiography, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
The Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) an international centre for biomedical research and graduate education, located in Oeiras, Portugal, was founded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) in 1961. Its campus includes other research institutes in biology, biotechnology and chemistry, 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 Scientist - Faculty of 1000.
The Champalimaud Foundation, based in Lisbon, Portugal, was created at the bequest of the late Portuguese industrialist and entrepreneur, António de Sommer Champalimaud. 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 neuroscience and oncology. On October 5, 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 Laboratory to be built in Braga, 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.