Universidade do Minho (UMinho)

Mission

“The University’s mis­sion shall be the cre­ation, dis­sem­i­na­tion and appli­ca­tion of knowl­edge, under the spirit of free­dom of thought and plural crit­i­cal judge­ments, through the pro­mo­tion of higher edu­ca­tion and the con­struc­tion of a soci­ety par­a­digm based on human­is­tic prin­ci­ples, and hav­ing knowl­edge, cre­ativ­ity and inno­va­tion as cor­ner­stones for growth, sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, wel­fare and solidarity”.

Nature

The Uni­ver­sity of Minho, is a legal per­son gov­erned by pub­lic law, which shall autonomously draw up its own by-​laws and shall enjoy sci­en­tific, cul­tural, admin­is­tra­tive, eco­nomic, finan­cial and dis­ci­pli­nary autonomy.

• Human train­ing at the high­est level cov­er­ing eth­i­cal, cul­tural, sci­en­tific, artis­tic, tech­ni­cal and pro­fes­sional aspects through a diver­si­fied edu­ca­tional pro­vi­sion, the cre­ation of a proper learn­ing envi­ron­ment, the val­ori­sa­tion of the activ­ity devel­oped by teach­ing, research as well as non-​teaching and non-​research staff, and per­sonal, social, intel­lec­tual and pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment of its stu­dents, thus con­tribut­ing to life­long learn­ing and to the exer­cise of an active and respon­si­ble citizenship.
• Research devel­op­ment and par­tic­i­pa­tion in sci­en­tific insti­tu­tions and events, fos­ter­ing a per­ma­nent quest for excel­lence, encour­ag­ing cre­ativ­ity as a source of inno­v­a­tive and unique solu­tions as well as a search for answers to the major chal­lenges faced by society.
• Trans­fer, exchange and val­ori­sa­tion of sci­en­tific and tech­no­log­i­cal knowl­edge result­ing from the devel­op­ment of applied solu­tions; the ren­der­ing of ser­vices to the com­mu­nity; the pro­mo­tion of ini­tia­tives in the con­text of life­long edu­ca­tion; and the devel­op­ment of sup­port­ing actions, all of which should be based upon rec­i­p­ro­cal val­ori­sa­tion and entrepreneurship.

• Pro­mo­tion of activ­i­ties that pro­vide access to cul­tural assets so that they can be enjoyed by every per­son and group, both inter­nal and exter­nal to the University.
• Cul­tural, sci­en­tific and tech­ni­cal exchange, with both national and inter­na­tional insti­tu­tions and organ­isms through the mobil­ity of stu­dents, teach­ing staff as well as non-​teaching and non-​researching staff; the devel­op­ment of learn­ing and research pro­grammes based on the estab­lish­ment of part­ner­ships; the con­tri­bu­tion to inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion, par­tic­u­larly with Por­tuguese speak­ing coun­tries; and the cre­ation of a mul­ti­lin­gual envi­ron­ment at the University.
• Inter­ac­tion with soci­ety by con­tribut­ing to the pub­lic under­stand­ing of cul­ture, of the analy­sis and the pre­sen­ta­tion of pro­pos­als to address the main prob­lems of daily life, as well as estab­lish­ing part­ner­ships in order to pro­mote social and eco­nomic devel­op­ment at regional, national and inter­na­tional levels.
• Con­tri­bu­tion to the social and eco­nomic devel­op­ment of the region and to the explo­ration, preser­va­tion and dis­sem­i­na­tion of its nat­ural and cul­tural heritage.
• Pro­mo­tion of the University’s insti­tu­tional sus­tain­abil­ity and com­pet­i­tive­ness in a global context.

Sciences

• Plant Func­tional Biol­ogy Cen­tre (CBFP))
• Mol­e­c­u­lar and Envi­ron­men­tal Biol­ogy Cen­tre (CBMA)
• Physics Cen­tre (CF)
• Cen­tre of Math­e­mat­ics (CMAT)
• Chem­istry Cen­tre (CQ)
• Earth Sci­ences Cen­tre (NCT)
• Cen­tre of Geo­log­i­cal Research, Man­age­ment and Val­ori­sa­tion of Resources (CIG-​R)

Health Sciences

• Life and Health Sci­ences Research Insti­tute (ICVS)

Social Sciences

• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Soci­ety Research Cen­tre (CECS)
• Social Sci­ences Research Cen­tre (CICS)
• Trans­dis­ci­pli­nary Research Cen­tre «Cul­ture, Space and Mem­ory» (CITCEM)

Arts and Human Sciences

• Cen­tre for Human­is­tic Stud­ies (CEHUM)

Psychology

• Psy­chol­ogy Research Cen­tre (CIPsi)

Law

• Cen­tre of Stud­ies in Euro­pean Union Law
• Human Rights Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Research Cen­tre
• Munic­i­pal Law Research Unit

Eco­nom­ics and Management

• Cen­tre for Research on Pub­lic Pol­icy and Admin­is­tra­tion (NEAPP)
• Research Unit in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Inter­na­tional Rela­tions (NICPRI)
• Applied Micro­eco­nom­ics Research Unit (NIMA)
• Eco­nomic Poli­cies Research Unit (NIPE)
• Research in Mar­ket­ing and Strat­egy Cen­tre (iMARKE)

Education

• Research Cen­tre in Edu­ca­tion (CIEd)
• Research Cen­ter in Child Stud­ies (CIEC)
• Research Cen­tre for Train­ing of Child Edu­ca­tion Pro­fes­sion­als (CIF­PEC)

Engineering

• Bio­ma­te­ri­als, Biodegrad­ables and Bio­mimet­ics Research Group (3 B’s) — IBB Asso­ci­ated Lab­o­ra­tory
• Cen­tre ALGO­RITMI (CAlg)
• Com­puter Sci­ence and Tech­nol­ogy Cen­tre (CCTC)
• Cen­tre for Tex­tile Sci­ence and Tech­nol­ogy (2C2T)
• Cen­tre of Bio­log­i­cal Engi­neer­ing (BEC) — IBB Asso­ci­ated Lab­o­ra­tory
• Cen­tre for Mechan­i­cal and Mate­ri­als Tech­nolo­gies (CT2M)
• Ter­ri­tory, Envi­ron­ment and Con­struc­tion Cen­tre (C-​TAC)
• Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Cen­tre for Pro­duc­tion Tech­nol­ogy and Energy (CITEPE)
• Insti­tute for Sus­tain­abil­ity and Inno­va­tion in Struc­tural Engi­neer­ing (ISISE)
• Insti­tute for Poly­mers and Com­pos­ites (IPC) — I3N Asso­ci­ated Lab­o­ra­tory