​Dean's Message

Welcome to the School of Engineering of the University of Minho!

I am very proud to be the Dean of a remarkably strong, consistent and proactive School, which believes that the multidisciplinarity of its projects is a mandatory requirement for the contribution to innovative and pioneering endeavours, allowing us to anticipate the needs of the economic and social environment.

 Our School counts on an outstanding group of faculty, staff and students. All are working together as a team in order to fulfil the Schools' development goals and evolution strategy. Each of them is a valuable player contributing with unique knowledge and performance to the exceptional productivity and competitiveness results of our School. The School of Engineering must be able to put together and boost the right people for the right places in its diverse activities. As a whole, the School must be able to attain higher performance levels, either in Education, in Research or in Interaction with Society.

Our school is truly committed to providing a superior quality higher education, aiming at training highly competent and socially relevant citizens and professionals. We are driven by education and lifelong learning, constantly seeking to provide the opportunity to renew competences and acquire new knowledge, fostering the continuous improvement of professional skills.

The School of Engineering offers higher education and innovative research opportunities on classical engineering areas as a cornerstone of education in the Engineering domain. Notwithstanding, the School also devotes its efforts to innovative ground-breaking scientific areas, the so called "new engineering", involving new manufacturing technologies, more efficient processes, advanced design, energy and sustainability. The School wishes to promote knowledge and innovation working towards the reinvention of our future and providing effective solutions to the societal challenges of our days: environment, energy, reindustrialisation, sustainability, bioengineering, etc. 

The School of Engineering is a School devoted to cutting-edge research and capable of addressing real life problems in close cooperation with industry and society. R&D activities foster the creation of new knowledge, which is in turn applied and taught, constantly renewing the cycle of practice-based learning.  As an R&D excellence institution, the School devotes its activities to strategic areas for its development, strengthening its position in the national and international research institutes' network. We intend to provide academic environments which encourage our students' entrepreneurial skills. Our research is not only market-driven but addresses also the benefits of long-term approaches to our key partners – Industry and Students. 

The University of Minho has recently been included in the top world leading rankings for higher education, namely, the Times Higher Education 2017/2018, the Times Higher Education 100 under 50 University Ranking 2017, and also the prestigious SCImago Institutions Rankings, Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) and Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). We are certain that the School of Engineering has played an important role to this achievement, contributing with its excellent research and education results. In 2016, the School of Engineering carried out around 200 research projects which represented a total funding sum of more than 67 million euros. Also in 2016, more than 600 papers were published in WoS/Scopus journals and 11 national and international patents were registered. ​

​The report originated from the Institution Evaluation Programme of the European University Association (EUA) on the UMinho, published in 2007, referred that a quality culture is clearly embedded in the organisations' operations. The UMinho actively seeks to be an entrepreneurial university, aiming at a strong interaction between staff and students and the external community, engaging in knowledge and technological transfer. The accelerating rate of scientific publications, the rise of the number of PhD degrees and the significant increase in contract research funds have been praised by EUA. The UMinho is an articulation agent for quality higher education and plays an outstanding role on sustainable regional development. 

In the report "Diagnosis of the Research and Innovation System – Challenges, strengths and weaknesses towards 2020", recently published by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the University of Minho is referred to as a top institution with regards to the number and quality of collaboration relationships with the national industry network. The UMinho is distinguished as a knowledge production centre, complementing the necessary competences for the development of research projects, also being referred to as the organisation with the largest number of connections to interface institutions and technological centres. The UMinho stands out as the main source of specialized knowledge regarding strategic projects in cooperation with the industry, playing a central role in the technological and scientific network. 

The School of Engineering aims at being recognised as a School which trains "the Best Portuguese Engineers", not only at a national level but also by strengthening its international acknowledgment. 

We invite you to explore our website and learn more about our School, our educational offer and our pioneering research teams and projects. In case you wish any further detailed information, do not hesitate to contact us or come and visit our facilities.