Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologias Agrárias e Agro-Alimentares

ICETA-“Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologias Agrárias e Agro-Alimentares da Universidade do Porto”, a non-profit scientific organization, was created in 1993 as a management unit for Research Units of the Universidade do Porto, which are at present CECA (Unit 211), CIBIO (Unit 609) and CEQUP (Centro de Química da Universidade do Porto) [Unit 1061, that since 2001 is part of REQUIMTE-Laboratório Associado para a Química Verde (Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry, Clean Processes and Technology), in association with Centro de Química Fina e Biotecnologia - Universidade Nova de Lisboa].

At present, ICETA is responsible for the management of the budget of the three units mentioned above and of more than 150 funded projects, with a gross annual budget in excess of 6 million euros.

At REQUIMTE, ca. 500 researchers (260 holding a Ph.D Degree, of which roughly half work in Porto) exploit the basic principles of Green Chemistry and aim to contribute to the practice of Sustainable Chemistry. Research is presently focused in the following thematic areas of: (i) novel compounds from renewable sources; (ii) food quality and safety; (iii) analytical control and process automation; (iv) clean chemical processes; and (v) chemical biology and bioengineering. The scientific activity is internationally recognized and evidenced by over 2200 articles published in the period 2004-2010.