The developments in science in Portugal

How has science production developed in Portugal? How does it compare to science production in other European countries? Find out the answers to these and other questions in this study by Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, the Oceano Azul Foundation and Oceanário de Lisboa.

07 November 2019

3 min

Team

See all

The developments in science in Portugal (1987-2016)

Evaluating science is a necessity for science policymakers. However, the concept of justifying investment in science based on the benefits it can bring is controversial in the scientific community and among policymakers. In Portugal, the issue of scientific evaluation has been analysed and discussed multiple times as the government supervision by the main funding body, currently the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), changes. Different policies have been implemented with the aim of developing scientific capacity in Portugal, and international assessments of research and development (R&D) units have been carried out periodically.

This study aims to complement the existing body of scientific knowledge in Portugal with an analysis using methodologies that are independent of scientific institutions and policies and that can be obtained in a replicable and continuous way over space and time. It is therefore hoped that this work will provide independent information on the trajectories of science in Portugal, while addressing a number of key aspects about understanding the science carried out in Portugal:

the chronological changes in the scientific system in Portugal, under the influence of a number of scientific policies
the inputs (e.g. human resources, funding) needed to produce science
the resulting outputs (e.g. publications, patents)
the mobility of human resources in science.

Through this study, Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, the Oceano Azul Foundation and Oceanário de Lisboa intend to inform society about the current position of science in Portugal, in comparison to reference countries in Europe, and about the differences between regions in Portugal and between the main higher education institutions. In this way, they hope to contribute to the debate on the direction of scientific policies in Portugal.

A temporal and geographical analysis of the science produced in Portugal over the last 30 years has shown remarkable progress in the amount of investment and the results produced, progressively converging with the European average and even surpassing it in some indicators. However, compared to the reference countries, Portugal is still close to the countries with lower performance in several indicators and falls short of the scientific performance of the countries with more solid scientific systems, which have consistently produced science with superior results in terms of quantity and impact.