The "Portuguese Association for Regional Development" (APDR) is a scientific institution founded in 1984 whose main objective is the promotion of research in the field of Regional Science. APDR is also the Portuguese Section of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA).

APDR presently has around 220 effective members mainly working in universities or regional development private or public institutions. Most members are economists, geographers, architects and engineers.

Since 1998, APDR organises each year a Meeting that gathers about 200 Portuguese and foreign researchers in the field of Regional Development (the official languages of the Meeting are Portuguese, English, Spanish and French).

In 1998 APDR started its editorial activity with a collection entitled "Colecção APDR": until now 16 books and 3 CD-ROM were published. APDR also publishes a biannual newsletter and, since 2003, the Portuguese Review of Regional Studies.

APDR organised the 44^th Congress of the European Regional Science Association, which was held in Porto from 25 to 29 August 2004, having gathered more than half thousand researchers from all Europe .