Raul Fangueiro was born in Braga, Portugal, in 1969. He is married and the father of three daughters. He graduated in Textile Engineering from the University of Minho in 1992 and completed his PhD in the same field in 2002. In 2019, he obtained his habilitation (Agregação) in Advanced Materials and Processing at the same institution.
He joined the University of Minho in 1991 as a teaching assistant and has since developed a continuous academic career that culminated in his appointment as Full Professor at the School of Engineering in 2021, in the field of Fibrous and Composite Materials. Throughout his academic career, he has been a faculty member in the Departments of Textile Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, teaching more than thirty course units across over twenty-five degree programmes, covering all three cycles of higher education. He has also lectured in several European universities, including Heriot-Watt University (Scotland), Politecnico di Torino (Italy), the University of Zagreb (Croatia), and the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), within the framework of master's-level programmes.
His scientific activity focuses on advanced fibre-based materials. He has authored more than 230 papers in international scientific journals, 35 books and book chapters, and 40 patents. He is listed among the top 2% most influential scientists worldwide, according to rankings by Elsevier and Stanford University. He has coordinated more than 150 research, development, and innovation projects funded by national and international programmes, many of them with significant socioeconomic impact. He has also been the driving force behind major international scientific conferences, including the AUXDEFENSE – World Conference on Advanced Materials for Defense (since 2018) and the ICNF – International Conference on Natural Fibers (since 2013). He serves on the editorial boards of several leading scientific journals in advanced materials and was Editor-in-Chief of the AUTEX Research Journal (De Gruyter) between 2024 and 2025.
In 2011, he founded FIBRENAMICS – Institute for Innovation in Fibrous and Composite Materials, today recognised as a Technology and Innovation Center (CTI) within the Portuguese R&D ecosystem. He chaired its Founding Committee between August 2021 and July 2022, and has served as President of the Board of Directors since July 2022.
He has mentored several university spin-offs and start-ups, promoting the transformation of scientific results into high value-added products and technologies. He collaborates with companies across multiple industrial sectors, nationally and internationally, leading innovation projects with strong technological impact.
In November 2024, he was appointed to the National Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CNCTI) by the Portuguese Government. Since October 2025, he has been a member of the Working Group on the Revision of the Science Law. He is also a member of the Scientific Committee for Guimarães European Green Capital 2026, the Local Innovation and Science Advisory Council of Braga, and the Technical-Scientific Advisory Committee of the SENAI Institute for Innovation in Biosynthetics and Fibres (Brazil).
Between 2022 and 2025, he served as Vice-Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Minho, responsible for Society Interaction. He previously served as Director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2020–2021) and as Director of the Centre for Textile Science and Technology (2022).
