The Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics (LIP) (LIP - Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas) is a state-run Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 research laboratory created in 1986 under the sponsorship of the National Foundation for Science

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia

The Foundation for Science and Technology , FCT, is an organization within the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior in Portugal which funds scientific research activities, in particular in the areas of natural sciences, exact sciences, social sciences and humanities....

 (FCT) of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education

Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education , MCTES, is a Portuguese government ministry.-External links:*...

. LIP has two main centers of activity, one in Coimbra

Coimbra

Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...

 and the other in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

. The Lisbon center has also a collaborative extension in Faro. The majority of the research activities are done through international collaborations with institutions like CERN

CERN

The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...

. The laboratory has about 170 members, among them professors and scientists affiliated with the University of Coimbra, the Lisbon University, the Technical University of Lisbon

Technical University of Lisbon

The Technical University of Lisbon is a Portuguese public university. It was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of older schools, and comprises, nowadays, the faculties and institutes of veterinary medicine; agricultural sciences; economics and business administration; engineering,...

, the New University of Lisbon

New University of Lisbon

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, , also known as NOVA ) was established in 1973 and is the youngest of the three public universities of Lisbon, in Portugal....

 and the University of the Algarve

University of the Algarve

The University of the Algarve is a Portuguese public university with administrative and financial autonomy. Its two campuses and the central administration are located in Faro, the capital city of the Algarve region. It has about 9,000 students.- History and organisation :It was founded at the end...

.

LIP is involved in scientific research on issues related with high energy physics and instrumentation, working heavily with CERN

CERN

The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...

 of which Portugal is a full member. LIP has also made research in space science

Space science

The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....

 projects with NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

, the Pierre Auger Observatory

Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is an international cosmic ray observatory designed to detect ultra-high-energy cosmic rays: single sub-atomic particles with energies beyond 1020 eV...

, the SNOLAB

Snolab

SNOLAB is a Canadian underground physics laboratory at a depth of 2 km in Sudbury, Ontario in Vale's Creighton nickel mine. The original Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment has ended, but the facilities have been expanded into a permanent underground laboratory.SNOLAB is the world's...

, and the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

, and conducts research in Monte Carlo method

Monte Carlo method

Monte Carlo methods are a class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to compute their results. Monte Carlo methods are often used in computer simulations of physical and mathematical systems...

s for medical physics. The laboratory is also involved in the Ibercivis

Ibercivis

Ibercivis is a distributed computing platform which allows internet users to participate in scientific research by donating unused computer cycles to run scientific simulations and other tasks...

 distributed computing

Distributed computing

Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...

project.