CECS participates in the 3rd phase of the Bosch-UMinho Consortium

Bosch Car Multimédia and the University of Minho started another phase of their Research and Development consortium, which is already considered the largest university-company partnership in Europe. At this stage, the consortium will have an investment of 26.3 million euros, resulting from an investment agreement between the two entities and the Portuguese Investment and Foreign Trade Agency, representing the Portuguese State. The Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS) maintains the existing partnership and participates in two projects of the current consortium – Factory of the future and Easy Ride -, with the collaboration of Teresa Ruão, CECS Vice-Director, Sandra Marinho, professor of UMinho and integrated researcher of the centre, and Sónia Silva, contractor researcher of the consortium and doctoral student at CECS.

According to an order published in Diário da República on January 6, the project “meets the conditions necessary to grant financial incentives for major investment projects”, as well as seeks to generate new scientific and technological knowledge for development solutions for industrialization, production and quality control of new systems, products and components for the automotive industry, with applications in the different stages of production of the company’s factory located in Braga and which allows to increase its levels of productivity, efficiency and quality.

The participation of CECS in this consortium, where STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) researchers predominate, focuses on the study of Internal and Intercultural Communication, with results expected to be applied at the Braga factory, but also at the Car Multimedia factory network (located in countries such as China and Malaysia). Communication science researchers will also participate in the research line of new product development, such as social networking apps for motorcycles.

This presence of CECS in the Bosch-UMinho partnership started in 2016 and resulted in several publications, conference communications, organization of training actions and participation in the PhD in Advanced Systems for Industry, which have involved many researchers from the centre.

[Posted: 09-01-2020]