Considering the technological development and innovation crucial to its activity, Efacec recently saw several of its projects approved through European programs such as Horizon 2020 and by the partnership agreement between Portugal and the European Commission, Portugal 2020.

Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 is the EU’s largest research and innovation program with almost € 80 billion of funding available over seven years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract.

Under this program, the OSMOSE, SLICENET and InnoDC projects have recently been approved.

2017 – 2021
The OSMOSE (Optimal System-Mix of flexibility Solutions for European electricity) provides for the study of the benefits of interconnections between the electricity, gas and heat networks in order to create greater flexibility allowing a more penetrating penetration of renewable variables. This project also aims to achieve a share of renewable energy of at least 27% in the European system, the creation of a fully integrated energy market and the link between transmission and distribution network operators that integrate demand response (DR), smart grids and storage.

It involves 33 partners from 9 European countries, including several Network Transmission Operators, such as TEN, REE, TERNA, REN, ELES, ELIA, as well as various corporate and university entities such as Schneider Electrics, ABB, Saft, Ingeteam, IBM, R & D Nester, TU Berlin, Université Paris Dauphine among others.

2017 – 2020
SLICENET (End-to-End Cognitive Network Slicing and Slice Management Framework in Virtualised Multi-Domain, Multi-Tenant 5G Networks) aims to develop a new network architecture that maximizes the potential of future 5G networks and the services provided by them on the basis of in advanced virtualization technologies and the cognitive management of the network resources to the needs of customers at all times.

It involves 15 partners from 10 different countries such as Ericsson, Eurescom, IBM, DELL EMC, Altice Labs, University of the West of Scotland, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, among others.

2017 – 2021
InnoDC (Innovative tools for offshore wind and DC grids) focuses on the development of a transmission system, targeting the integration of offshore wind with the existing power system as well as its future operation.

It involves 13 partners from 6 different countries such as Cardiff University, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, University of Porto, ELIA among others.

Portugal 2020

Portugal 2020 is a partnership agreement between Portugal and the European Commission, which brings together the five European Structural and Investment Funds – FEDER, Cohesion Fund, FSE, FEADER and FEAMP – which define the programming consecrate the economic, social and territorial development policy to promote, in Portugal, between 2014 and 2020.

These programming principles are aligned with Intelligent, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, pursuing the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Under this program, the DigiXSafe, Quiet Transformer 2 and Mobilizador 5G projects have recently been approved.

2017 – 2019
This project aims to create an innovative solution for automatic level control systems, based on modular hardware and software security architectures, with a digital interface.

2017 – 2019
QT2 is aimed at the development of a new range of low noise Core type transformers.

This RTD project, as well as DigiXSafe, will be mostly developed by the R & D teams of the respective Business Units, making specific referrals to specialists from the National Scientific and Technological System (SCTN) entities.

2017 – 2020
This project aims to develop and test a set of components and services for future 5G communications networks, involving a large consortium of business partners and the SCTN, namely: Altice Labs, Altran, NOKIA, Telecommunications Institute, University of Coimbra, INESC TEC, etc.