Initiative

The fourth industrial revolution has implications in all parts of the economy and involves technologies from various fields. So to understand the future of work of the Industry 4.0 and to support Portuguese companies and policymakers managing the transition, researchers across Portuguese institutes are working on areas such as:

Artificial intelligence
Robotics
Employment
Policy

Taking a collaborative approach, the initiative on the Future of Work and the Fourth Industrial revolution allows us to join forces on this topic and create better insights.

Objectives

Our initiative Future Work Portugal, launched by IN+/IST, CEiiA and QSR, intends to gain insights of the Portuguese reality, by answering questions along three dimensions:

Technology
Which technologies will shape the future of work?

Employment
How can employees and companies prepare for changing skill requirements?

Policy
How can policymakers shape the future of work?
What are the risks and opportunities through a changing working environment?

Approach

Understand Industry 4.0 in Portugal

Survey companies, conduct studies and conferences, enabling discussions to identify perception, needs and challenges related to technological change and its social impact, including the occupations at risk.
Analyze the perception and acceptance of technological change in various professions.

Find answers to challenges

Conduct case studies for deeper insights and to evaluate solutions, identifying skill profiles required in the future.
Create a roadmap for action to take advantage of technological opportunities.

Implement solutions

Implement co-creation studies to identify opportunities in managing technological change and apply learnings to a broader number of projects
Share insights and support policymakers in responding to technological challenges and opportunities.

Activities

Publications

Presentation of the Initiative Jobs for the future Portugal (in Portuguese). Open
'Evolução das competências numa era digital' [Evolution of skills in the digital age], in robotica. Open
The changing patterns of industrial production: how does it play for the Iberian Peninsula?” in Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Open

Initiative News

Workshop with MIT and UFRGS researchers about Future of Work

In the week of 21-25 October we welcomed in Portugal the researchers of the Work of the Future initiative, which stems from a collaboration between researchers from the MIT Industrial Performance Center and Organizational Engineering Group (NEO) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This visit had the objective of holding a workshop focused on the Future of Work theme, where preliminary results could be presented and discussed.
In addition to the workshop, visits to OGMA and CeiiA took place, as well as a Roundtable on digital technologies and the organization of work in manufacturing companies, including technological developments and consequent demographic challenges and changes in the skills profiles sought. Roundtable sessions discussed the results of the Future of Work projects as well as the impact of industry 4.0 on employment in Portugal, with sessions presented by Timothy Sturgeon (MIT) and João Jesus (Air Centre).

On June 17th and 18th, Joana Mendonça and Benjamin Meindl participated in the TMP consortium.

The 18th annual Technology, Management, and Policy (TMP) Doctoral Consortium took place at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. During two days, PhD students in the field of technology, management, and policy had the opportunity to present their work to an international group of researchers. Joana led a session on the Future of Work, where Benjamin presented his work “How will technologies of the fourth industrial revolution shape firms and employment.”

Roundtable: Challenges of Technological change for Employment

In this roundtable, we put together industry and academia, to discuss employment challenges through modern technologies. After brief presentations of industry cases or research findings, we will discuss and debate in an exclusive informal setting. The discussion is structured along two topics. First, the discussion focusses on how technology-driven employment challenges can be addressed; second, case examples will serve as a basis to discuss how the challenges differ between industries.

Program

Master's Thesis

For information on our initiative and opportunities to cooperate or to join us as a researcher in the field of Industry 4.0 and Future of work. Please reach out to us if you are interested.

Contact