Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) is a private, not-for-profit organization, of public interest, a partnership of nine institutions with research and development in the field of Telecommunications

IT mission is to create and disseminate scientific knowledge in the field of telecommunications.

IT is actively involved in fundamental and applied research both at national and international levels. Simultaneously it is committed to foster higher education and training, by hosting and tutoring graduate and postgraduate students. it also plays its role towards public society with public awareness initiatives, knowledge transfer to industry, and by providing consulting services on a non-competing basis.

IT is organized around three sites and 4 branches:
Aveiro, in the University Campus
Coimbra, at Site II of the University of Coimbra
Lisbon, at Instituto Superior Técnico
Porto, at the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto
Covilhã, at the University of Beira Interior
Leiria, at the Leiria Polytechnic
Lisbon, at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.

Some IT researchers are located also at other Portuguese higher education units namely at the universities of Algarve, Évora and Nova de Lisboa, and the polytechnics of Lisbon, Setúbal and Tomar.

Scientific expertise in IT, from which follow its main research and education activities, spans the following areas:
Wireless Communication,
Optical Communications,
Networks and Multimedia,
Basic Sciences and Enabling Technologies.

IT members (about 260 PhD holders) are organized into research groups which cover most of the R&D areas in Telecommunications and supporting sciences and technologies. In 2014 IT hosted about 300 PhD students and about 200 MSc students.

Advanced laboratory facilities are available in most Scientific Areas of IT to support applied research, which is carried out in the framework of national and international projects in cooperation with similar research institutions worldwide. Each year IT is involved in more than 170 projects, of which about 30 have European funding, obtained in a competitive basis.