Maritime Economy

• The port of Leixões, which is one of the largest, most efficient and competitive multipurpose ports of the Iberian Peninsula, handling 25% of Portuguese seaborne foreign trade and exporting to over 180 countries;

• A modern transportation network connecting ports, highways, the Atlantic railway corridor of the Trans-European core rail network, and Porto International Airport.

Source: YILPORT Leixões (2020)

• CIIMAR - Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, a top research institute of the University of Porto, provides innovative solutions and products, such as new drugs and marine products for industrial and medicinal needs, water quality, sustainable fisheries, preparedness for and mitigation of oil spills and other emergent contaminants, environmental monitoring and risk assessment, preservation of ecosystems services, ocean/coastal management and ocean literacy;

• INEGI - Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, develops technology solutions related to the sea, including in the areas of wave energy, submarine robotics, transport, oceanographic observation, aqua-culture and hyperbaric systems;

• INESC TEC - Institute for Systems Engineering and Computers offers technologies and solutions to tackle the deep-sea challenges, such as marine robotics and autonomous vehicles for deep sea exploration, as well as enhancing the Maritime Economy through sustainable approaches for exploring and exploiting living and non-living ocean resources;

• University of Porto, hosts the Underwater Systems and Technology Laboratory (LSTS) within its Faculty of Engineering, which is one of the leading research institutes in underwater robotics in Europe, focused on the design, construction, and operation of unmanned underwater, surface and air vehicles and on the development of tools and technologies for the deployment of networked vehicle systems.

Source: Fórum Oceano (2020), CIIMAR (2020), INEGI (2020), INESC-TEC (2020), LSTS (2020)

• OceanScan – Marine Systems & Technology develops systems, tools and technologies for cost-effective access to the Ocean, including the Light Autonomous Underwater Vehicle System (LAUV);

• Abyssal develops state-of-the-art solutions regarding navigation, visibility and spatial awareness, including integrated Subsea Navigation Solutions for Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs).  

Source: UPTEC (2020)

• The tax benefits granted by SIFIDE II provide support to R&D activities related to the creation or improvement of a product, process, program or equipment that represents a substantial improvement of existing techniques. It allows to recover up to 82.5% of investments in R&D activities that did not benefit from any State grant.