Fibrenamics hosted the 2025 edition of the Ignite Sessions under the theme “Inside Developments – From Knowledge to Competitiveness”, dedicated to presenting its internal R&D lines developed over the past two years.

This Tuesday, December 9, decision-makers from industry, representatives of public entities, and the scientific community gathered at the Cruise Terminal of the Port of Leixões, in Matosinhos, to discover sustainable, intelligent, and high-performance solutions with strong potential for industrial application.

The opening session was led by Raul Fangueiro, President of Fibrenamics, who highlighted the importance of close collaboration between academia and industry through interface centers, underlining Fibrenamics’ role as a catalyst for this dynamic. In his address, he also recalled the Fibrenamics Defence and Protection Hub, located at AvePark, as a concrete example of this capacity for coordination and strategic growth.

One of the central moments of the event was the keynote address by Paolo Bondavalli, Head of the Advanced Materials for Energy Programme at the European Innovation Council (EIC). His intervention provided an in-depth overview of the EIC’s mission and vision, as well as the strategies implemented to strengthen technological development through programmes focused on advancing Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Bondavalli also issued a clear challenge to the European industrial fabric, calling for strengthened innovation capacity and the development of more disruptive, high value-added solutions in a highly competitive global context dominated by powers such as the United States and China.

The Ignite Sessions also served as the stage for presenting Fibrenamics’ three strategic axes of applied innovation — Sustainability, High Performance, and Smart — introduced by Fibrenamics Igniters Joana Antunes, Duarte Dias, and Liliana Leite. These presentations set the foundation for a dynamic roundtable discussion moderated by Frederico Mendes, featuring Albertina Reis (Riopele), Júlio Grilo (Grupo Simoldes), Luís Laranjeira (Grupo Casais), Bruno Figueiredo (Graphenest), and Colonel Arlindo Domingues from the Innovation and Doctrine Division of the Portuguese Army.

The debate addressed innovations with the greatest transformative and strategic potential across different sectors — from sensorization and fiber-level innovation to protection and comfort, increased material durability, and material regeneration.

The relationship between ecological sustainability and economic sustainability emerged as one of the most relevant cross-cutting themes, highlighting the need to align environmental regulations with financially sustainable business models. Participants also shared their differentiation strategies and market approaches based on innovation and added value.

The need for greater strategic focus on support and funding instruments for innovation, entrepreneurship, and internationalization was also discussed, reinforcing the importance of more effective capacity-building models and a more cohesive vision for critical areas of national development.

The session also featured a keynote by Sílvia Garcia, Executive Board Member of ANI – Agência Nacional de Inovação, who presented the main priorities and results of national innovation promotion strategies, emphasizing the important role of Portuguese companies. She highlighted the importance of investing in lower TRLs as a lever for the country’s advancement, currently classified as a Moderate Innovator, while reinforcing the link between science, industry, and competitiveness.

The event concluded with an exclusive and vibrant networking cocktail, providing direct interaction between participants and the Fibrenamics projects on display, creating space for new collaborations and opportunities.

As an integrated initiative, the Ignite Sessions position themselves as a strategic platform for reflection, sharing, and alignment among key players in the innovation ecosystem. This edition reaffirmed Fibrenamics’ role as an active interface between science, engineering, and industry, highlighting its contribution to the development of differentiated solutions and to strengthening Portugal’s competitiveness on a global scale.