The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education ( or ''MCTES'') was a Portuguese

government ministry Ministry or department (also less commonly used secretariat, office, or directorate) are designations used by first-level Executive (government), executive bodies in the Machinery of government, machinery of governments that manage a specific se ...

dedicated to the design, development, execution and assessment of the science, technology and higher education national policy. Its official address was the Palácio das Laranjeiras in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. The rest of the education system fell within the scope of the Ministry of Education. Its last minister was Elvira Fortunato, aided by Pedro Nuno Teixeira as secretary of State of Higher Education.

Powers

The MCTES' main powers are creating, executing and assessing the science, technology and higher education national policy, but it has many other powers, among them, governing the General Directorate of Higher Education (''Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior''), tutelage over the public higher education institutions, and tutelage and oversight over the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and the Macau Scientific and Cultural Centre. The MCTES co-governs (with other Ministries and within its scope) the General Secretariat for Education and Science (''Secretaria-Geral da Educação e Ciência''), the General Inspectorate of Education and Science (''Inspeção-Geral da Educação e Ciência''), and the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (''Direção-Geral de Estatísticas da Educação e Ciência'') and has co-tutelage and co-oversight of the Institute of Financial Management of Education (''Instituto de Gestão Financeira da Educação'') and the Agência Nacional de Inovação. The MCTES has legal influence over the National Agency for Management of the Erasmus+ Programme, the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and observes the work done by Portugal Space, the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation's (''Agência para a Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica)'', and all state laboratories. The MCTES can consult two national boards, the Education National Board and the Science, Technology and Innovation National board.

List of ministers

References

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Science, Technology and Higher Education {{Portugal-gov-stub

Powers

List of ministers

See also

References