Launch of TMOB-HUB brought together on March 30th, in Guimarães, people responsible for CCDR-N, IMT, ANAC and Mota-Engil, among others

The School of Engineering of the University of Minho presented on March 30th the TMOB-HUB – Transportation and Mobility Research Hub platform, which associates the competencies of seven research centres in the mobility area and wants to affirm itself in the cooperation with national and international players. The ceremony took place from 2pm to 6.45pm, in the main auditorium of the Azurém campus, in Guimarães, and included four lectures and a round table with several personalities.

The opening session was attended by the president of the Northern Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N), António Cunha, the president of the Order of Engineers, Fernando de Almeida Santos, the mayor of Guimarães, Domingos Bragança, the director of Braga Urban Transport, Teotónio dos Santos and, from UMinho, the vice-rector for Research and Innovation, Eugénio Campos Ferreira, the vice-president of the School of Engineering, Lígia Rodrigues, and the director of TMOB-HUB, José Campos e Matos.

The programme included talks by the president of CCDR-N, António Cunha, the president of the Institute for Mobility and Transport, João Caetano da Silva, the president of the World Road Association, Nazir Alli, and the executive director of Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, Giorgio Travaini. Territories, decarbonisation, the triangle education-technology-quality of life and digitalisation were some of the topics addressed.

There was also a round table with ten figures in this field, such as Paulo Duarte, executive director of the Portuguese Railway Platform; Hugo Lopes, director for Development and Sustainability of the Administration of Ports of Douro, Leixões and Viana do Castelo (APDL); António Gomes Correia, emeritus professor of UMinho; José Gomes Mendes, executive director of Mestre Casais Foundation; and Tânia Cardoso Simões, president of the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC). Other participants included Miguel Campos, president of Infraestruturas de Portugal; Ricardo Gomes, vice-president of the Associação dos Industriais da Construção Civil e Obras Públicas (AICCOPN); André Santos, product owner of Bosch Portugal; Rui Guimarães, manager of Mota-Engil; and Paulo Humanes, director for Mobility at CEiiA – Centro de Engenharia e Desenvolvimento. The moderator was Diogo Ferreira Nunes, from the digital newspaper ECO. The closing session was held by the president of the School of Engineering of UMinho, Pedro Arezes, who emphasized the “multidisciplinarity of the initiative” and said that he hopes that “this platform allows a statement in the cooperation with national and international actors in this field. He also pointed out that this initiative “may benefit from the School’s most recent investment in Aerospace Engineering, which includes, itself, the area of aeronautics, but also many other applications in the fields of Mobility and Transport. He underlined the participation of “many of the stakeholders in this area”, as well as, the international participation, in his opinion, “timely”, taking into account that “one of the ambitions of this platform will have to be its internationalization”.

About TMOB-HUB

This platform covers the main transportation modes – railway, metro, road, airport, maritime, fluvial – and intends to cooperate intensively with the main national actors in the area, along with several international partners. UMinho research centres involved in the project are Algoritmi, the Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction (CTAC), the Institute for Polymers and Composites (IPC), the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Engineering Structures (ISISE), the Centre for Microelectromechanical Systems (CMEMS), the Centre for Mechanical Engineering and Resource Sustainability (MEtRICs) and the Centre for Textile Science and Technology (2C2T). Overall, they represent 450 scientists, almost a hundred of them linked to the theme of mobility.

“This platform is transversal to so many domains and may be decisive in the future, because the world is increasingly interconnected and because it is important to actively respond to urgent challenges such as smart cities, energy transition, infrastructure management and smart materials,” says coordinator and professor José Campos e Matos. The official website is www.tmob-hub.pt.

SOURCE: Guimarães, Agora!

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