NOVA Medical School was established by law decree 481/77, issued November 15, 1977. It began its activities in the 1977/1978 academic year.
The school is one of the institutions of NOVA University of Lisbon. Its responsibilities are described in article 2 of the defining statues and policies of the school, published in law 8664/2009 annex, issued March 18, 2009 (Code of the Portuguese Republic, 2nd series, number 60, March 26, 2009):
- The school mission is the public service of preparing with excellence professionals in the areas of medical sciences and other health fields.
- So that the school can accomplish this mission it pursues the following objectives:
- Internationally competitive research in multidisciplinary areas, including research aimed at solving society health problems;
- Teaching excellence, increasingly focusing in the second (master) and third (doctorate) cycles, offering academic programs competitive nationally and internationally.
- Establishing a widening network of synergetic health field collaborations with other institutions at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and beyond;
- Providing high quality services leading to the effective improvement of health care delivery and its human resources, nationally and internationally, namely on Portuguese-speaking countries.