In a conversation with Oeiras Valley, José Neves, President of AED Cluster Portugal, spoke about the projects under development and about the next innovations in the aeronautics, space and defense sectors.
During the interview, he talked about how the AED Cluster was “rather well cherished by the Municipality of Oeiras” and how Oeiras has been making Taguspark available for the AED Days, which are already on their 10th year.
Throughout the conversation, José Neves talked about the project of a 19-seat aircraft, built in Portugal, the construction of a drone for coastal surveillance weighting roughly a ton and the development of a satellite constellation for surveillance of the Atlantic Ocean. “These projects represent around EUR 400 million of investment and the creation of 800 new job opportunities for highly qualified professionals. Therefore, a real challenge for the entire ecosystem,” stated José Neves.
Read the full interview which introduces the work of José Neves, President of AED Cluster Portugal for four years now, who graduated from Instituto Superior Técnico in Aerospace Engineering when the program was created.
AED Cluster Portugal already involves more than 120 Portuguese entities. What is this cluster and what are the advantages for its associates?
The cluster emerged in 2016, with the merger of three associations: one dedicated only to aeronautics, another dedicated to space, and another very focused on the defense sector. It emerges almost as a logical space for these associations. On the one hand, because many associates shared the same associations — they typically met three times a year. On the other hand, because it was often the same people who carried out the projects across all three associations. Therefore, it was a logical step for people to start coming together and to gain a very important point, which is critical mass, that is, to have a larger dimension in this ecosystem.
The cluster emerges exactly to try to make the ecosystem work as a network and, above all, to increase competitiveness, not only for industries, but also for the national scientific-technological system — this is our purpose. How do we do this? By creating our strategy, in which we defined four cornerstones. One is dedicated to people and skills. How do we attract people to this market? How do we qualify people for this market? And when we talk about qualification, we talk not only about university graduates, but also factory management personnel who are also highly qualified professionals nowadays.
Another one of those cornerstones is markets and opportunities, how the companies can address a certain market, how they can develop products for that market. And it is an important point to develop in a network because we are talking about markets where investments are typically large. Nobody creates an aircraft or a system for an airplane with only five million euros. It’s always 10, 20, 30 million. The same is true for both the space and defense sectors. Having critical mass is what allows us to do larger projects. Typically, we have projects worth EUR 10 to 20 million. Right now, within the framework of the RRP (Recovery and Resilience Plan), we have two projects involving an investment of around EUR 400 million. No company alone could do it, but when you aggregate them, you can develop better.
Other cornerstones we consider are innovation and value creation. In other words, how we put new modern products, often differentiating products that are not yet on the market, into that market; how we help companies create added value and, in a way, how to be the spearhead in some technologies. And we are working towards this: artificial intelligence, quantum technology, underwater communications technology, drones that are increasingly larger and more autonomous — they are all domains where the cluster is working, all increasingly important. The cluster is also expanding in the space market: one of our goals is a new constellation of satellites for the Atlantic and it is now in its early stages of development; another one, the development of a microsatellite launcher. As we can see, there is a huge range of big challenges.
A fourth cornerstone that we address is the issue of funding and regulation. In other words, everything that revolves around these markets, namely aeronautics and space, is regulated and has to be approved and certified. Therefore, we have to make sure that, whatever we are doing, we are doing it right and preparing it to enter the market so that, later on, we don’t have to throw everything away. It is an important point that we address, as well as the financial component. It’s important to figure out how we are going to get some of the available public funding opportunities, both national and international, to be able to leverage and launch more and more entities.
Then we have what could be, in a way, a transversal cornerstone and a very important one nowadays, which is sustainability. And sustainability is a subject that pertains to the aeronautics market, the space world, in terms of environmental monitoring — there are about 50 indicators that are only measured through space — and the defense sector itself which also looks at sustainability as a mark of the future. How to leave a smaller ecological footprint is a thought that is increasingly gaining ground, even in a defense scenario.
What projects developed or under development by AED Cluster Portugal would you like to highlight?
Maybe I will go with the first one. This cluster was designated as a cluster in 2019 by the Ministry of Economy and one of its goals is to increasingly boost joint work between different entities, whether they are technology centers, universities, companies or municipalities like Oeiras — in sum, everyone working together.
One of the first projects we started working on together was the PASSARO project, engaging 14 entities (some that were not even part of the association) whose main goal was to develop technology for Airbus. In this case, the PASSARO project was a new technological infrastructure in terms of cockpit capacity: structures, anti-bird protection, the systems component and the beginnings of using augmented reality to make the maintenance of an aircraft easier. The project began in 2014, went on until 2018, and its main advantages were to get the companies working before an entity like Airbus, a major world player. Being able to demonstrate to Airbus that the entities could get together and work towards a single goal was very important.
The teams collaborated very well and the project was a success regarding what was achieved in terms of artifacts, the cockpit, the cooperation between companies, and in terms of maintaining the human capital. A very pertinent point to take into account in these areas is how to attract people to work and then how to keep those people. Challenging projects certainly attract the younger generations, much like the PASSARO project.
We have new on-going projects. FLY.PT is already looking into the advanced air mobility phenomenon, which relates to mobility in urban areas and limited to large cities. That is, the helicopters of the future: electric, less polluting, less noisy, possessing VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) capability, and which fly around the cities. It’s the next big thing in aeronautics, it’s happening now, and we have already started working on this project about two years ago. Typically, aeronautics projects are three- to five-year projects, which is often a challenge also for the younger generations who are used to everything being very fast.
Then we have the VIRIATO project, looking to develop a microsatellite launcher to position smaller satellites in orbit, which is a huge challenge. The cluster is directly involved in this project and the project is being coordinated with companies of the cluster.
Finally, this year we have started two projects in which the cluster is involved under the Recovery and Resilience Program. One of them aims to develop a 19-seat aircraft, entirely built in Portugal and to be operated from Portugal, as well as a drone for coastal surveillance weighing roughly a ton. The other project foresees the creation of a satellite constellation meant for the surveillance of the Atlantic Ocean. These projects represent around EUR 400 million of investment and the creation of 800 new job opportunities for highly qualified professionals. Therefore, it is a real challenge for the entire ecosystem.
In your point of view, what practical effects do the projects developed by AED Cluster Portugal have on the Portuguese population?
Firstly, the creation of jobs for qualified professionals. And secondly, the creation of added value for companies, allowing them to design their projects on an international level. We are talking about aeronautics, space and defense. These are highly international markets. How can we reach an international level ourselves? Through innovation. These projects are always projects that look to the future, they are innovative projects. In a way, they are projects that allow the Portuguese population to see that Portuguese companies are making a very important footprint abroad and that, therefore, they are quite representative of our capacity in a highly competitive global market. If we come together and work together, that gives us the critical mass, the added value which would be much more complicated to achieve alone.
What can we expect in the near future, as far as innovations go, in the aeronautics, space and defense sectors?
One of the big investments in play is in the area of advanced air mobility. It’s a market that is going to grow to several billion euros in the next ten years. Right now, artificial intelligence is a game changer for this type of aircraft because the vision for the future is to make these smaller aircrafts autopilot equipped, overcoming the need for a pilot. It’s clear a big investment has to be made, and we’re still a long way from it, but that’s the direction we are headed to.
In Portugal we are also developing something else that is very important — a non-pressurized 19-seat aircraft. For us it’s a big challenge because it’s the first time we’re going to entirely develop an aircraft in Portugal. We have an Air Nova factory in the country, which used to belong to Embraer, developing aeronautical parts. We have several companies developing aeronautical components. It is a huge challenge and in 2026 we hope to have the first flights.
Then we also have the development of drones, that is, unmanned aircrafts that are going to do coastal surveillance, forest surveillance. Within the space market, the development of a new satellite constellation is clearly a big challenge. The development of a satellite launcher is another big challenge. The Portuguese Space Agency has drawn up plans for Portugal to be a leader in some of these areas and, therefore, there is a big investment in Azores to develop a spaceport that would launch satellites in the future.
The defense market’s dynamics is changing into something that did not exist before. After the rise of war in Ukraine, this market gained a great capacity for the development of new solutions. And many of the solutions we have been talking about in aeronautics and space often have a dual use: for example, we can do earth observation through satellites, to do agricultural monitoring, but also to do ground monitoring for border surveillance.
There are also new command control systems. One of the projects that is being developed in partnership with the Portuguese Navy was designed to create robust new artificial intelligence systems for underwater surveillance. For example, submarine cable surveillance is something that is very much in vogue today because of the war. Developing it at a national level is very important and the Navy is strongly committed to the development of those kinds of technologies.
There is a world of new technologies under development and hence the growth of the cluster. Four years ago, 60 entities were what we had. Today we have more than 120. And not only do we attract the scientific technological system, like the companies, but also the municipalities themselves because they understand that these areas can attract human capital to the municipalities, which is very important.
Next month the 10th AED Days will be held. What are the advantages of holding this event in the Municipality of Oeiras?
In my opinion, it was visionary of Oeiras and Ponte de Sor to have both realized early on that the aeronautics, space and defense markets would grow, which motivated the municipalities’ clear decision to take a chance on them. In Ponte de Sor, several industries are already based there. As for Oeiras, the municipality has been investing in a way that is more connected to the services. We also have service companies based here. Oeiras has great advantages: it is very close to Lisbon, so we are able to quickly attract foreign entities that come to visit us and that arrive the day before and leave the day after. Proximity is a very good strong point. The location is very pleasant in the sense that anyone who comes to Portugal and arrives in Oeiras sees a technological park such as Taguspark, sees several technological parks around Oeiras and is clearly surprised with the capacity of the technological parks, but also with the human capital that is here. Oeiras already has a significant presence in the Portuguese industry in terms of GDP. These municipalities are very complementary, but they both bet on a sector that is in full growth today.
We were quite well received by the Municipality of Oeiras. Both the councilors and the mayor have always looked at this market as one that shows a lot of promise and they have always made Taguspark available for the AED Days. We are now in the 10th year of its implementation and from year to year we have been growing. It has been an attraction pole, a national center of gravity for the industry.
AED Cluster Portugal attends numerous international events. What is the added value of this representation for the Portuguese business fabric?
It’s a very important point to mention, because the aeronautics, space and defense sectors are very export-oriented. How are we going to export? There is nothing better than going to international events to show the best we have. When four or five years ago we would go abroad, people would often ask us what the weather was like in Portugal. Nowadays, they ask what we are doing in terms of capabilities, what technological developments are taking place, what investments in technology and technological development are being done at the moment.
Today, when we say that we have an investment of EUR 400 million under the Recovery and Resilience Program, everybody gets wide-eyed and they want to know what we are doing. When we say we are developing a one-ton unmanned aircraft, people are surprised. These are game changer areas for the industry, they allow us to take a quantum leap in what Portugal has to offer and being abroad makes it much easier to project this image and these products.
One of the points that I have always stressed is to try to have the support of the government, the armed forces, and the Portuguese Space Agency, because these institutional players validate that our products meet the highest possible standards. For us to be able to project Portugal even further, bringing together the scientific industry and each essential component is very important, whether it’s the government, the armed forces, or Portugal Space.