News

• MEXT and AlmaScience join forces to create solutions that address current and future societal challenges.
• The engineering and innovation company of the Mota-Engil Group strengthens AlmaScience's consortium of associates, driving innovation in sustainable functional materials and green electronics.

AlmaScience, a collaborative innovation lab dedicated to sustainable functional materials and green electronics, announces the entry of MEXT: Mota-Engil Next, the innovation and transformation company of the Mota-Engil Group, as a new associate of its Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem.

This strategic partnership combines MEXT's expertise in infrastructure engineering, energy, mobility, and integrated technological solutions with AlmaScience's capacity to develop disruptive and sustainable technologies, paving the way for innovative solutions that address the challenges of ecological and digital transition.

"MEXT's membership in our ecosystem represents an important step in expanding the application of our technologies to new strategic sectors," says Carlos Silva, President and CEO of AlmaScience. "MEXT brings an integrated vision of engineering and technological innovation that perfectly complements the competencies of our current associates. Together, we can explore applications of sustainable functional materials in areas such as construction, smart infrastructure, mobility, and energy management, contributing to a more circular and efficient economy."

Innovation serving strategic diversification

MEXT's mandate is to drive the holding's diversification into five new business areas by 2030, with AlmaScience as the strategic partner in this innovation journey.

Sílvia Mota, CEO of MEXT, states: "Mota-Engil Next aims to position itself at the forefront of innovation in sectors that intersect construction, mobility, energy, and new models of urban living. In this context, the connection with AlmaScience emerges naturally, given its unique role in applied research in advanced materials, smart and sustainable solutions, and new paradigms of interaction between science and industry. By becoming associates of this ecosystem, we seek to access cutting-edge scientific and technological knowledge, as well as collaborate on projects that accelerate the creation of high-impact solutions for current and future societal challenges."

AlmaScience's R&D+I areas present direct relevance to the Mota-Engil Group's innovation priorities, integrating dimensions such as:

• Sustainability and circular economy, with the development of bio-based functional materials and low environmental impact solutions;
• Digitalization and distributed intelligence, through printed electronics, sensing, and IoT applied to new contexts;
• New business models in mobility and smart infrastructure, enabled by technologies such as smart packaging, chipless printed RFID tags, or sensors integrated into sustainable substrates.

A growing ecosystem

With MEXT's entry, AlmaScience now has ten associates, strengthening its positioning as a co-creation platform between academia, industry, and technology. The ecosystem now includes:

• Universidade Nova de Lisboa
• NOVA.ID FCT
• Raiz -- Forest and Paper Research Institute
• Fraunhofer Portugal
• The Navigator Company
• Imprensa Nacional -- Casa da Moeda
• Grupo Clara Saúde
• Firmo
• Municipality of Almada
• MEXT: Mota-Engil Next

Collaborative model with real impact

AlmaScience's membership model allows companies to actively participate in the development of customized R&D agendas, convert investment – eligible under SIFIDE – into hours of technological development, access commercial rights to intellectual property, and benefit from preferential rights in the creation of spin-offs.

In recent years, AlmaScience has demonstrated its ability to transform research into commercially viable solutions, with highlights including technologies such as PaperWeight AI (paper sensors for smart shelves, already in testing phase with international retailers), PetriTag® (biodegradable sensor for bacterial contamination detection), and GELA (quick-cooling label for beverages).

About AlmaScience

AlmaScience is a collaborative innovation lab and technology incubator for sustainable functional materials and green electronics, located in Caparica and Aveiro.
With a multidisciplinary team of approximately 25 PhDs and master's degree holders in areas such as chemistry, materials science, paper technology, and electronics, AlmaScience transforms scientific research into commercially viable products and solutions, always with a focus on sustainability and circular economy.

About MEXT: Mota-Engil Next

MEXT: Mota-Engil Next is the innovation unit of the Mota-Engil Group, responsible for driving strategic transformation through the incubation of new ideas, investment in startups, and management of emerging businesses. With an integrated approach that combines experimentation, Corporate Venture Capital, and business development.

More information: https://www.motaengilnext.com/