Mission & Aims

The Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development (CDRSP) of the Polytechnic of Leiria (IPL) is a leading research center that aims to contribute to scientific and technological development through new products, materials, and more sustainable, effective, and efficient processes.

The CDRSP is an organic research unit of the IPL. It was founded in May 2007 to promote economic competitiveness, social cohesion, and sustainable development through new, more efficient, sustainable products, materials, and processes. Since 2021, CDRSP is part of the Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems (ARISE) Associated Laboratory (AL). ARISE is an association of five R&D Units, interfacing public entities of 3 Universities – Coimbra, Minho, and Porto, through the R&D Units CEMMPRE, ISR-C, ISISE, SYSTEC – and one Higher Education institution – IPL, through CDRSP.

The mission of the Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development – CDRSP of the Polytechnic of Leiria is to contribute to scientific and technological development, leading to new products, materials and processes considered more adjusted, effective and efficient.

That’s our contribution to generate added value to the industry and promote the awareness of the importance and of the role of the rapid and sustainable product development in the society.

In order to accomplish this mission, our Centre leads scientific and technological research and promotes dissemination, training and consultancy actions in strategic areas of product development.

Aims

The aim of the strategic research programme is to consolidate and reinforce the national and international position of CDRSP as a leading research group in the field of direct digital manufacturing, based on additive manufacturing, and moving towards the fully integrated concept of added-value manufacturing.

This is possible due to the multidisciplinary nature of the CDRSP research team, including researchers from different scientific backgrounds. The main Scientific Research Areas of CDRSP-IPLeiria lays on Additive Manufacturing, having a focus on 60% of applied research and 40% of basic research. To do so, the development of Additive Manufacturing is supported by 3 core interconnected scientific pillars:

  • mathematical and computational methods;
  • advanced materials;
  • and innovative manufacturing processes.