Thales has launched an Innovation Hub in Portugal and signed a cooperation agreement with Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), the largest Engineering, Science, Technology and Architecture school in Portugal. The agreement was signed at IST by Arlindo Oliveira, IST President, Marko Erman, Thales’s Chief Technical Officer and João Araújo, Thales Country Director in Portugal.
The cooperation agreement between Thales and IST is to develop cooperative research projects in shared fields of interest, including transportation and security, leading to opportunities of mutual benefit and knowledge transfer. The closer collaboration between the Institute and industry will enable the development of new technologies, solutions and services.
Students will have the opportunity to work with real-case scenarios and Thales will benefit from new resources, skills and visions in order to solve major technical challenges and follow trends and market demands more adeptly.
The Innovation Hub aims to boost fresh directions and minimise risk by addressing customer requirements through a problem-solving approach. It will allow the local Thales R&T team to collaborate closely with both IST students/researchers and local partners in order to design and develop products and solutions that will meet market trends and, operator expectations as well as providing users satisfaction.
Cooperating since 2008, IST and Thales in Portugal have an excellent partnership record within different research and innovation projects co-funded by national and European Commission framework programmes.