The Government and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) have defined as a priority the commitment of science to the principles and practices of Open Science. They are therefore engaged in the elaboration and implementation of a National Open Science Policy based on the statement that Knowledge belongs to all and is for all. In pursuit of this goal, the MCTES published in February 2016 a document with the Guiding Principles for Open Science and in March 2016, the Council of Ministers approved a resolution with the guidelines for the National Open Science Policy and mandated the MCTES to create an Interministerial Working Group (WG-NOSP). The National Open Science Policy will be presented to the public in 2018, subject to discussion.
The Conference of Rectors of the Portuguese Universities (CRUP) has recommended to the Portuguese research funding organizations that they implement a policy of mandatory depositing of the research output, and CRUP generally supports the EUA Working Group recommendations. At the national level, there are more than twenty institutional mandates.
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – FCT, the major national funder, launched (May 2014) the Open Access policy fully in line with EC recommendations. The mandate requires the deposit in a repository of the Portuguese repositories network – RCAAP.