From INETI (1980-2009) to FCUL (2009)


In 2006 and 2007, all the Portuguese State Laboratories received new missions and several were merged or split in order to comply with the new philosophy for the Portuguese system of science, technology and innovation.

In particular it was decided to split INETI into several components: some should be integrated into existent or new State Laboratories, others should be integrated into Universities. Therefore, according to the Law 355/07 (October 28, 2007), INETI departments dedicated to optics and lasers (active in space and astrophysics, defence and security, metrology and instrumentation) - formerly LAER (Aerospace Laboratory) and DOP (Optoelectronics Department) - which had been already merged into an Optics and Lasers Department (DOL), should be integrated into the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL).

This transfer was formally achieved on May 22nd, 2009, but is reported back to January 1st, 2009 due to administrative considerations. The designation of the laboratory within the Physics Department of FCUL is Laboratory of Optics, Lasers and Systems (LOLS).

No substantial changes were introduced in the normal operations, and LOLS fulfilled its role in all R&D national and international contracts. There was therefore no disruption of the operations carried out by LOLS within the ex-INETI framework, although huge operational constrains have been felt in 2008 and 2009, during the transition period.

The administrative and financial management of most of the contracts was transferred to the Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FFCUL), a private non-profit organization, created in 1993 as an initiative of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, in order to manage financial and administratively R&D projects and service contracts of its research units and centres.

Past records of scientific team members cannot be forgotten and removed from the CV's of their authors. FCUL therefore inherited past previous activities, formally contracted to INETI but actually executed by current FCUL researchers.