PRODUTECH

PRODUTECH is officially recognized by the Portuguese Government as the management organization for the Production Technologies Cluster (National Cluster).

The cluster’s mission is to promote the sustainable development of the Production Technologies Industry and the Manufacturing Industry, through the articulated cooperation between stakeholders, notably Industry’s key players, R&D organizations and other entities, and by the implementation of strategic integrated projects, addressing innovation, cooperation and internationalization.

Its multi-annual action plan defines 5 strategic action vectors: (1) Growth, consolidation, qualification of the Production Technologies Industry; (2) Visibility and internationalization (including the internationalization of R&D and innovation sources and the industry participation at current and emergent global value chains); (3) Strategic Information and Intelligence; (4) R&D and Innovation (5) Business Development and Networking.

PRODUTECH plays also an active role in several European initiatives and projects, such as Vanguard Initiative, participated in several working groups coordinated by the EC within the scope of the Action Plan for Digitising the European Industry, among several others, while fostering the nurturing and expanding the reach of the Production Technologies eco-system, within R&D, innovation and business development and in the establishment of cross cutting initiatives leveraging the adoption and diffusion of advanced and digital production technologies throughout the manufacturing industry.

The Cluster currently has 150 associated organizations, of which 118 are companies, 23 R&D, education and training entities, 9 associations (encompassing industry sector, R&D sector and civic associations). Beyond the associated members and due to the direct participation of industry associations and sector oriented R&D organizations, the scope and reach of cluster activities and impact is considerably wider. Its cooperation links extend towards municipalities, venture capitalists, as well as it actively collaborates with regional authorities and national funding agencies, in the identification of stakeholders’ needs, in the definition of policy priorities and in the implementation of projects and initiatives that address towards the defined priorities. PRODUTECH is member of the executive board of the partnership Portugal Clusters, gathering the majority of officially recognized Portuguese clusters.

PRODUTECH has been the host and coordinator organization of the PRODUTECH DIH a European Digital Innovation Hub. On it genesis were 2 DIH initiatives , coordinated by PRODUTECH, notably the PRODUTECH national platform and iMan Norte Hub-Digital Innovation Hub for Customer-Driven Manufacturing (regional scope).

At National level, PRODUTECH also dynamizes flagship large scale R&D and Innovation projects, addressing the digital and green transformation of the Industry, fostering a full fledge cooperation between Production Technology Suppliers (producers of capital goods and providers of AI and other specialized technologies for the industry), End user companies from the several manufacturing sectors (both process and product industries) and R&D organizations and Academia. Examples are:

(1) PRODUTECH R3, a 105 partners project with a total investment of 167 Million Euros, that addressing the development of 85 new technology solutions for the digitalization, sustainability and net-zero of the Manufacturing Industry, that is in its final year of development.

(2) PRODUTECH TESP, an application gathering 61 partners, with a total investment of 37 Million Euros, addressing the digital commissioning of new production systems, the development and integration of advacend digital solutions and production technologies in manufacturing, the new production technologies for advanced materials and industry decarbonization technologies. PRODUTECH TESP is in the evaluation stage of the funding authorities.

At European level PRODUTECH is also involved in DIH networks, notably:

(1) is part of several DIH networks and working groups, notably the DTA's DAta in Manufacturing WG, the network of Manufacturing EDIHs (EDIH4Manu), the East-West Corridor DIH Working Group, among several others.

(2) integrated the consortium of DIH² - Pan-European Network of Robotics DIHs for Agile Production project, gathering 26 DIHs with the aim to spark innovation in industrial companies, by supporting them in their Agile Production Challenges and in unleashing their digitalization potential.

(3) it is one of the AI DIH Network gathering 30 DIHs with focus on Artificial Intelligence.

(4) is part of the pilot actions “High Performance Production through 3D printing” and “Efficient and Sustainable Manufacturing” of the Vanguard initiative.