Use following code to get Spring ApplicationContext inside portlet PortletContext portletContext = this.getPortletContext(); ApplicationContext context = PortletApplicationContextUtils.getWebApplicationContext(portletContext); then use context to retrieve beans context.getBean("beanName"); Note : spring-webmvc-portlet.jar is required. Another more generic way of accessing Spring Application Context http://mdshannan1.blogspot.com/2010/11/easy-access-to-spring.html