The National Institute for Scientific Research (INIC)

Abstract

My Ph.D research project aims at writing the history of the Portuguese National Institute for Scientific Research (Instituto Nacional de Investigação Científica, INIC) (1976-92).Although INIC is an important institutional actor in the development of the Portuguesescientific system, it has been mostly absent from the history of the Portuguese institutionsof science policy. INIC was founded after the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 ina context in which institutional coordination of scientific research had already becomea priority. The political instability of the post-revolutionary period, together with theexpansion of the scientific system, resulted in institutional tensions and conflicts involvingthe scientific community, the higher education community, and other institutions tangentto INIC, that led to its extinction in 1992. Based on INIC’s archive and complementedby secondary sources and interviews, this project proposes to bring this institution into thehistorical narrative of the Portuguese institutions of science policy,