INESC Porto starts working on European project CORENET

INESC Porto starts working on European project CORENET

On 1 June 2010, INESC Porto’s Manufacturing Systems Engineering Unit (UESP) started working on a new European project called Customer-oriented and eco-friendly networks for healthy fashionable goods (CORENET).

20th December 2010

The aim with this project is to provide functional, high quality, affordable and ecologically compatible pieces of clothing and footwear. The project will do so by contemplating the needs of a large number of European citizens, as well as specific groups, such as senior citizens and people suffering from obesity or diabetes.

CORENET will make it possible to strengthen the market share of companies in the textile, clothing and footwear sectors near socially relevant niches, offering them “healthy” and custom-made items. In order to design, develop, produce and distribute small orders, a new framework and components for a new collaborative network will be developed, taking into consideration ecological and cost efficiency. Thus, it will be possible to produce the items according to the levels of demand. Afterwards, tests and demonstrations will be carried out in pilots, to be developed in industrial environments, thus confirming the potential of the new collaborative and sustainable approach in the different sectors.

Américo Azevedo, researcher at UESP, is responsible for the project and, together with João Bastos, represented INESC Porto at the project’s Kick-off Meeting, which took place in Brussels, on 14 June. António Almeida (UESP) is also working on this project. Tomorrow Options, an INESC Porto/FEUP spin-off company, is the other Portuguese partner involved in the project.

BIP, June 2010