The meeting took place last Friday, April 23, at the CCVF and by videoconference, within the scope of the work of the Crisis and Economic Transition Office.
In the late morning of last Friday, April 23, Domingos Bragança received a group of businessmen and researchers that make up the working groups of each of the Collaborative Projects of the Office of Crisis and Economic Transition of the Municipality of Guimarães, in a meeting promoted in person, in the Foyer of the Grand Auditorium of the Centro Cultural Vila Flor, and with the possibility of remote participation by videoconference. The objective was to transmit a set of information that results from meetings held with the Government of Portugal, namely with the Secretary of State and Minister for the Economy. At the table, chaired by Domingos Bragança, were the Councilor for Economic Development, Ricardo Costa, and the executive presidents of GCTE, Carlos Bernardo and Pedro Arezes.
The meeting began with the interventions of the panel that converged on the idea of the need to start a second phase of work now, after the process of outlining the scope of research and development of each of the seven projects has been completed. This second phase will materialize the transfer of knowledge generated within R&D groups to invest in the productive fabric, an effort to be carried out by consortia of companies and which will prepare applications for support funds provided for in the framework of State and Union investments. European Union, namely Portugal 2030 and the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Then, the coordinator of Collaborative Projects, Raul Fangueiro, made the current situation and indicated the paths to follow from now on, followed by some interventions by the participants.
Closing the meeting, and by way of conclusion, Domingos Bragança said that Collaborative Projects benefit from this important characteristic of collaboration between companies and research centers, extremely valued by the Minister of Economy, but that now they will have to materialize in investment, transforming it in Mobilizing Projects that fall under the support provided for in the Recovery and Resilience Plan. “We have to take Collaborative Projects to the limit, transform them into Mobilizing Projects, and we have already identified areas in which we will be able to close the necessary consortia to achieve investments in the order of 100 million euros, such as equipment, devices and materials for health , agri-food, circular economy and biodegradable and reusable plastics, among others.