Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier (ITQB NOVA) is a scientific research and advanced training institute of the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa in the areas of chemistry, life sciences, and associated technologies.
ITQB NOVA is located in Oeiras, at the Tagus river mouth, just outside Lisbon. Since 1996, it has occupied a building inside the campus of the National Agricultural Station, an R&D institution of the Ministry of Agriculture.
ITQB NOVA’s mission is to develop scientific research and graduate teaching in life sciences, chemistry, and associated technologies for the benefit of health and the environment, as well as to provide services to the community and develop university extension activities, including the promotion of science and technology.
To affirm ITQB NOVA as a reference institute, nationally and internationally, in the development and promotion of scientific research and training, responding to the societal challenges of the 21st century in the areas of Health and Disease, Biological Resources and Sustainable Development.
- Excellence in research and training
- Ethics and responsibility
- Focus on internationalization
- Innovation and knowledge transfer
- Independence
- Collaboration with society
ITQB NOVA aims to promote graduate education and scientific research of excellence, with a deep connection between these two areas, in order to train high level qualified human resources at an international level.
ITQB NOVA trains not only Masters and Doctors, but also promotes career development after the doctoral studies, including the training of young Leaders of Research Laboratories as well as Technological-based Entrepreneurs.
In the context of Value Creation, ITQB NOVA aims, on the one hand, to maintain and promote collaboration with national and international companies and associations in the pharmaceutical, agro and biotechnological areas and, on the other hand, to stimulate the creation of spin-off companies, which can create value from the research carried out at the Institute. The value creation activities are eminently collaborative and depend on establishing strategic partnerships within the scientific and technologic ecosystem where the Institute is embedded.
The origins of ITQB NOVA go back to 1986 when t Professor António V. Xavier (1943-2006) came up with the concept for a new research centre. With the help of political leaders who understood the advantages of such a project for the development of the Portuguese Science and Technology landscape, CTQB – Centro de Tecnologia Química e Biológica – was launched.
CTQB started its activities in 1989, with a few research groups setting their laboratories next to Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), in Oeiras – now Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM) – near ITQB NOVA’s present location.
This research centre became Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica in 1993 and was integrated in Universidade Nova de Lisboa in the same year, going by the name ITQB NOVA.
In 1996, both ITQB NOVA and its associate institution IBET (Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica) – started to operate in the present site, in the campus of Estação Agronómica Nacional, in Oeiras. In 2001, ITQB NOVA was one of the first research institutions to be awarded the status of Laboratório Associado (LA) by the Minister of Science and Technology.
In 2021, a renewed Laboratório Associado – Associate Laboratory Life Sciences for a Healthy and Sustainable Future (LS4Future) – was approved, coordinated by ITQB NOVA in partnership with iBET, GIMM – Pólo de Oeiras, NOVA Medical School and IPOLisboa.
About António V. Xavier (1943-2006)
António V. Xavier was born in Porto on August 31st. He graduated in Chemical Engineering at Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto (1962-1965) and Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa (1965-1969). In 1972, António V. Xavier finished his PhD at the University of Oxford, UK, and pioneered the use of paramagnetic ions in nuclear magnetic resonance to determine the structure of biological molecules in solution. He returned to Portugal and was one of the founding members of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, becoming full professor at the University later on. In 1986 he started a new research institute, today known as ITQB NOVA, bringing together a wide range of basic research in chemistry, biochemistry and biology and related technologies. He was the chairman of the installation committee of the institute until 1998.
Considered as the scientist who set off the use of spectroscopy in Portugal, he vigorously maintained his research activity in Bioinorganic Chemistry, having received many prizes and awards for his dedication. Throughout his life he published more than 200 scientific articles, was directly responsible for 15 PhD theses and trained many other researchers. He was head of ITQB NOVA’s Laboratory “Structure and Function of Metalloproteins” until 2006.
ITQB NOVA Deans to date
1999 – 2002 Manuel Nunes da Ponte
2002 – 2006 Peter F. Lindley
2006 – 2008 Miguel S. Teixeira
2008 – 2011 José Artur Martinho Simões
2011 – 2013 Luís Paulo N. Rebelo
2013 – 2023 Cláudio M. Soares
2023 – xxxx João Crespo