The Institute of Asian Studies is a research and teaching unit striving to advance and deepen the field of Asian Studies at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP).

Set up under the auspices of the UCP in 2001 and integrated into its Faculty of Human Sciences in 2011, the Institute of Asian Studies represents a multidisciplinary unit in the Social and Human Sciences, with a particular vocation for knowledge about the language, societies and cultures of Asia, both in the past and the present.

The unit extends its geographic, historical and cultural range from the Middle East through to the Far East and striving to invest in steadily boosting the dedicated research, teaching and profile (always within a multidisciplinary framework) of the themes and problems of Asia. This takes place through expanding the network of partnership within the FCH, within the UCP and, naturally, within the national and international academic framework, the panorama of cultural institution and in conjunction with the private sector.