Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)is the largest school of engineering in Portugal, with long tradition in teaching, and excellence in research and training activities. Its mission is to contribute for the development of science, economy and society by promoting a higher degree of education in the areas of Science, Engineering and Technology at the undergraduate and graduate levels and by delivering highly qualified professionals in the public and private sector, including in the National and European R&D effort.

The Group of Materials Surface from IST, have been involved in several national and EU funded programs and has been working in close cooperation with industrial partners and paint suppliers. Experience in previous and actual EU-funded projects dealing with coatings for automotive industry and corrosion inhibition is vast. The group also carries scientific research on galvanised steel for automotive applications, under contract with EU steel producers. The group has solid experience in electrochemistry and corrosion research, especially by combining the new advanced localised electrochemical techniques with conventional electrochemistry, surface analysis and microscopy tools. In this way, the combination of electrochemical localised techniques like the scanning Vibrating electrode (SVET), scanning vibrating electrode technique (SIET), localised impedance spectroscopy (LEIS) and electrochemical microscopy (SEQM) with Auger spectroscopy, XPS and SEM analysis provides a powerful set of tools to assess and to understand the corrosion and corrosion inhibition mechanisms of the new protection systems. Well-recognised expertise in advanced and conventional electrochemistry, anti-corrosion technologies, surface analysis and microscopy constitutes a strong issue of the group. The topic of corrosion inhibition and self-healing on different systems has been one of the most important research areas of the group, as proved by more than 30 publications in high level scientific journals in the last 3 years.

Furthermore, the IST researchers bring solid expertise in terms of training, learning strategy, knowledge dissemination and structured R&D activities in close cooperation with the public and private sector, making this partner the most suitable one for the coordination of WP4 – Training and Dissemination Strategy of the MUST project. Organization of the European Corrosion Congress (2005) and the organization of the next Congress in Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (2010) are examples of the group involvement in dissemination activities.