The “Civic Association for Progress and Development in the Portuguese Manufacturing Industry - FORUM MANUFUTURE PORTUGAL" – aims to promote the reflection and the study of the problems within the Portuguese and European Manufacturing Industry. Practically, the aim is to develop long-term policies that will define a vision, a strategy and an action plan for the sustained development of the national and European industry over the next 15 years, in the sequence of the Lisbon Strategy and the Barcelona Summit.

In order to fulfill this aim, the Association will develop the activities that the corporate bodies see fit, namely:

a) Promotion of public debate sessions on all the matters that contribute to the development and progress of the national and European manufacturing industry;

b) Contribution to achieve the necessary consensus so that it is possible to define applied research areas that are essential for the development and progress of the national and European manufacturing industry. Those areas will then be included in the new Framework Programme for R&D, as well as in national and regional programs, aiming to achieve the 3% of the GDP to finance R&D;

c) Contribution to the identification of opportunity axles for companies and R&D entities to join efforts in order to improve the Portuguese participation in EU’s Framework Programme.