Universidade do Minho

The University's mission is to generate, disseminate and apply knowledge, based on freedom of thought and the plurality of critical exercises, promoting higher education and contributing to the construction of a model of society based on humanistic principles, which has knowledge, creativity and innovation as factors of growth, sustainable development, well-being and solidarity. Innovation and the economic valorisation of knowledge, in the form of partnerships with companies, municipal associations and government agencies, the licensing of industrial property, the promotion of a culture of entrepreneurship and spin-offs, are distinctive marks of UMinho. UMinho has a very clear strategy for Intellectual Property, being one of the most successful Portuguese Universities in this area of knowledge protection and in obtaining national and international patents. All this is done with a very strong connection to companies, the region, the territory. UMinho assumes itself as a complete University and has been able to achieve projects, both with direct funding from companies and mobilising projects and in co-promotion, of great success and great dimension, currently highlighting the great partnership with the company Bosch. The University of Minho assumes today a leading role in the context of national and international scientific activity. Over the years, it has been strategically positioned to attract external investment in R&D projects, in the most diverse scientific areas and in a wide range of typologies, both as a promoter and as a partner, which translates into a diversified portfolio of projects. At the University of Minho, the R&D projects of its organic units are worked internally, in two distinct aspects: the application process, supported by the Research Project Support Services Unit, and the technical and financial management, conducted in conjunction with the Project Management structure.