Setting-up a Design Factory within a Creative Science Park @Aveiro Region

Abstract

This paper aims to describe the ongoing implementation process of the Design Factory Aveiro (DFA) integrated in the Creative Science Park Aveiro Region in Aveiro, Portugal. The DFA is a place for the convergence of diverse subjects and entities to foster innovative and creative projects, acting as an interface that translates the efforts of academia to meet the needs and constraints of the existing socioeconomic, industrial and cultural local reality. The main goal is that, by crossing an experimental platform which promotes research through cultural mediation, based on co-creation and collaboration, will instigate the generation of innovative products and services that might have immediate applicability in the market. Above all, the innovative methodologies that will arise from this interaction, will create a place for radical and disruptive innovation.