The research and development work that have taken place at Técnico, over the last hundred years, have made a lasting impact in the Portuguese economy and society. Many large Portuguese companies, in all areas of engineering, were created as a consequence of work developed at IST. The technical quality of the work developed at IST speaks for itself and is widely recognized in all domains of activity of IST, ranging from civil and mechanical engineering to information and communication technologies, covering most of the other areas of engineering.
However, and fortunately for the country, science in Portugal has developed tremendously over the last decades, and Técnico is no longer the only significant player in the areas of science, technology and engineering. Many other institutions do exist, in these and in other fields, that perform excellent work and became well known internationally.
Técnico remains, however, Portugal’s most important player in the areas where it develops activity. The most recent rankings, that include the Shangai ranking and the US News ranking, consistently rank the engineering at the University of Lisbon (that is, Técnico) as the best in the country, amongst the best 100 in the world and amongst the best 20 in Europe. Other than mathematics (which also ranks on the top 100 in the US News ranking) no other field in Portugal appears in relevant positions in these rankings. Many other fields that have, deservedly, obtained high profile coverage in the news, like medicine, economics, business and social sciences are, nonetheless, much less developed than the fields of engineering and mathematics, where Técnico plays a leading role.
f one looks at the highest impact research being performed in Portugal, looking, for instance, only at the most highly cited papers in the Web of Science, Técnico ranks as the third institution in Portugal, lagging behind the University of Lisbon (that, of course, includes IST, which contributes with about half the scientific production) and the University of Porto. Both are much larger and cover a much larger number of fields than IST. (see image)
Técnico has also been remarkably effective at securing financing for its R&D activities at the national and international level. In the most important and competitive 7th Framework Program of the European Commission, Técnico and the private research institutes that it controls have won contracts with a total funding of 69 million euros, which represents more than 22% of the total amount that was awarded to the Portuguese higher education institutions. This contrasts sharply with the direct public financing of universities by the state, where IST costs less than 5% of the total of the national budget of higher education institutions.
The superior quality of the work developed in Técnico impacts directly in economic gains for the country. The companies that employ the highly qualified human resources produced by IST, the companies created by researchers from IST (including the more than 40 that integrate the IST Spinoff community) and the projects developed by IST in cooperation with other companies contribute with a very significant fraction of the economic output of the country in the technological sector, clearly leveraging every Euro invested . It is of utmost importance that public policies recognize these facts and support more effectively the development of science and technology that is essential for the competitiveness of Portugal and Europe.
