UESP puts together a Benchmarking Conference

On the 4th of May, INESC Porto, together with IAPMEI, organized a conference on the subject “Benchmarking as an Innovation tool”, included in one of the activities of the INTERREG III B-SUDOE, R+D+I for PYMES.

The general objective of these conferences is to alert the Portuguese companies’ managers to the importance of Innovation, as well as to help companies implement and manage innovation. In this case, the subject in debate was benchmarking as an innovation tool, stressing this innovation support strategic instrument.

The conference took place in the INESC Porto Auditorium, between 2.30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. and it counted on several speakers: António Correia Alves, who introduced INESC Porto and the R+D+I project; Dra Helena Duarte and Dra Celina Gil, both from IAPMEI, who showed us the business support Benchmarking tool; Natália Sebastião, director-shareholder of the SICLAVE company; Paula Silva, of INESC Porto, who presented us the practical case of use of that tool in the company mentioned, and Professor Aurora Teixeira, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP) since 1994, researcher of CEMPRE – Centre for Macroeconomic and Forecasting Studies of FEP, coordinator of the Masters in Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship In Engineering. This speaker presented the research she is currently carrying out in the areas of Human Capital, Economic Growth and Innovation.

The conference counted on around 40 people coming from several SMEs of the North Region, the area where the main studies of the R+D+I project fall upon.