History and Memory of Science and Technology in Portugal. The Science and Technology Archive of the Foundation for Science and Technology

The Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia - IP (FCT) was created in 1997, replacing the Junta Nacional de Investigacao Cientifica e Tecnologica (JNICT). It has as its mission "the development, funding and evaluation of institutions, networks, infrastructures, scientific equipment, programs, projects and human resources in all domains of science and technology, as well as the development of international scientific and technological cooperation" (Decree-law No. 45/2012, article 3). The history of FCT, is indistinguishable from the history of science, technology and of the organization of science in Portugal. Along with that historical past, FCT is entrusted with a significant heritage, mainly of an archival nature, which includes, apart from its own archive, the archives of JNICT and of other public and private institutions. FCT has carried out several initiatives with the aim of granting the preservation, organization and promotion of its historical archive, stressing its truly remarkable and unique character with respect to the knowledge of the history of organization and administration of science, of science policy and, finally, of the history of science in Portugal. The archive has been envisaged as a space of culture and memory, able to integrate other contributes, namely personal archives, thereby granting its preservation and completing and enlarging the national heritage that the FCT Archive is. It is assumed that, along with the permanently renewed mission of promoting science, forty years after the