Created in 1973, the University of Aveiro quickly became one of the most dynamic and innovative universities in Portugal. Now a public foundation under private law, it continues to develop and implement its mission to provide undergraduate and postgraduate education, to generate research and promote cooperation with society.

Attended by about 15,000 students on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, the UA has achieved a significant position amongst higher education institutions in Portugal,  being one of the top universities regarding the quality of its infrastructures, the strength of its research and the excellence of its staff.

The UA is a highly regarded institution of research led education, constituted by university departments, research units, polytechnic schools, interface units, and a vocational education network. Its integrated structure permits the articulation and harmonisation of the teaching and research environments, and enables the construction of individual educational paths, from post-secondary technological specialisation programmes to doctoral degrees. Teaching activities are developed in a research-based environment, and throughout the academic year, dozens of national and international conferences are organised, generating a dynamic and multicultural atmosphere for students and staff.

Excellence in research is one of the hallmarks of the University: 15 of its 18 research units were classified as Very good or Excellent by international panels under the sponsorship of the Portuguese National Science Foundation in its most recent round of assessments. Four of these units carry the label of Associate Laboratory, a distinction attributed by the Portuguese Government to research institutions of sustained and exceptional merit.

Research at the UA promotes innovative products and solutions, contributing to the advance of science and technology. It is a privileged partner for companies and other national and international organisations with which it cooperates on numerous projects and for which it provides important services.

During 2010, UA was active in 369 research and technology transfer projects, of which 32 were financed by international and European programmes, mainly FP6 and FP7.  These projects were developed in different scientific areas: cellular biology; ceramics and composite materials; design; education and behavioural sciences; electronics and telematics engineering; environmental and marine sciences; geo-technologies and geo-engineering; governance, competitiveness and public policy; languages and cultures; technologies and science of communication; mathematics and applications; mechanical technology and automation; music and dance; nanostructures, nanomodelling and nanomanufacture; organic chemistry and telecommunications.

The UA is a privileged partner of companies and other national and international entities, with which it cooperates on various projects and programmes and for which it provides important services. As a quality research institution, the University of Aveiro develops solutions and innovative products that contribute to technological, scientific, cultural and social improvement.

Team Leader

Dr. Andrei Kholkin

Dr. Andrei Kholkin received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Physics from the St. Petersburg State University and Ph.D. degree from the A. F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russia. In consequent years, he held research positions in Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland) and Rutgers University (USA). He is currently a research coordinator and head of the functional imaging and nanocharacterization laboratory of CICECO. His group develops multifunctional materials (including ferroelectrics and multiferroics) and scanning probe microscopy techniques. He is a coauthor of more than 350 technical papers in this area including numerous reviews and book chapters. He was a coordinator of two European projects on multifunctional materials and serves as an Associate Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (TUFFC) and member of editorial boards of several scientific journals. He is a member of the Ferroelectric Committee of IEEE and was a recipient of the “Excellency” award from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. He has been a Technical Committee member of several international conferences and cofounded a new conference series on Piezoresponse Force Microscopy. He was a guest editor of the special issues on ferroelectrics in TUFFC, Journal of Applied Physics and Materials Research Society Bulletin. Dr. Kholkin is a Fellow of IEEE (class 2012), and member of Materials Research Society and Portuguese Materials Society. His research are include multiferroics and magnetoelectrics for memory and sensor applications, ferroelectric polymers, metal organic frameworks (MOF), and self-assembled peptides, sensors and actuators, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), vibrational and thermal energy harvesting systems, dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of materials and structures, processing, characterization and applications of dielectrics, piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics, nanoscale properties of functional materials via scanning probe techniques and carbon-based materials/graphene.