The Executive and Monitoring Committee of the FUTURETECH_H2 project, led by the Federation of Metal Entrepreneurs (FEDEME), held its third coordination meeting in May 2024 to review the status and progress of the various activities included in this project.
The initiative belongs to the 3rd Call of the Interreg VI-A Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Programme (POCTEP) 2021–2027, which aims to promote and raise awareness of the advantages and capabilities of green hydrogen as an industry of the future and to strengthen its value chain to drive the development and expansion of this energy vector.
The session was held in person in the Alentejo region, more specifically in Vila Nova de Santo André (near Sines), at the Vocational Training Centre for the Energy Transition. It included a review of the progress of activities 1 to 6 (assessment of ongoing work, timelines, deliverables, results, and the status of planned communication actions...).
Special attention was given to actions related to the presentation of the training programmes foreseen in the project and the pilot development of the green hydrogen production, storage, and distribution unit (digital twin/simulator), as well as to the completion of the study on the current state of green hydrogen at both global and cross-border levels, and the study on the development and implementation of new business and activity models for the sector (E.1.1 and E.1.2), led by CATEC – the Advanced Centre for Aerospace Technologies.
In summary, it was a productive working day, thanks in large part to the excellent hospitality of the host organisations, especially Dr. Arnaldo Frade, regional delegate of the Alentejo Employment and Vocational Training Institute; Dr. Álvaro Beijinha, Mayor of Santiago do Cacém; Dr. Vanda Jesus, Deputy Director of the Energy Transition Training Centre; and, of course, the team from the Alentejo Regional Development Agency (ADRAL): Telmo Pena, Sónia Mendes, and Amélia J. Nunes.
This project, carried out by a consortium made up of six partners from the Alentejo (Portugal) and Andalusia (Spain) regions — CATEC, ADRAL, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, University of Évora, Nao Victoria Foundation and FEDEME — aims to develop the green hydrogen value chain in this cross-border area, promoting and showcasing the strengths and potential of this energy vector as an industry of the future.
To support this goal, the FUTURETECH_H2 project includes a comprehensive schedule of actions to be implemented in different phases from 2023 to 2025.
The project is co-financed by the European Union through the Interreg VI-A Spain-Portugal (POCTEP) 2021–2027 Programme and will run until 31 December 2025.
FutureTech_H2 has a total budget of €1,366,564.90.
