Although the role of Mathematical Sciences in Civilization has been of central importance for centuries, the current trend to a global economy and a knowledge society has placed information and innovation technologies increasingly dependent on scientific research, which results and techniques are underpinned and driven by Mathematics.

- 1st Porto Meeting on Mathematics for Industry
- The 69th European Study Group with Industry 2009
- Kinetics and statistical methods for complex particle systems 
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What do tyre recycling, the incubation of penguin eggs, LEGO and traffic monitoring have in common? If your answer includes any complicated multidisciplinary theory involving female penguins going down the Antarctic highway on LEGO vehicles with recycled tyres, you are way off the mark. These and other disparate problems such as consumers’ behaviour, artificial heart pumps, flight simulators and a host of other seemingly unre- lated problems are brought together by the fact that they have all been presented by industrial partners at European Study Groups with Industry (ESGI) in Den- mark, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, within the last few years. In short, mathematics is the common denominator.

One growth industry over recent years has been fish farming. Fish are raised in large cages kept within sea inlets, estuaries or lakes. The fish are fed with food pellets which are scattered onto the water above the cages. Ideally the pellets sink within fifteen seconds and can then be eaten by the caged fish. Sometimes there have been problems at fish farms with the fish food floating for too long, whereas in simple laboratory experiments with the same batch of pellets, throwing a handful onto water in a bucket, the pellets were observed to sink quickly. The aim is to understand why.

The near origins of CIM can be traced to the end of 1990 at the foundation of the European Mathematical Society (EMS) and to an initiative of the Portuguese Mathematical Society (SPM, Sociedade Portuguesa de Matem ́atica), which was one of the EMS founding members.

Originally published by the American Mathematical Society in MATH in the MEDIA, a section of the AMS Website, www.ams.org/mathmedia, edited by Tony Phillips. Reprinted with permission.

Scientific and technological research is the basis for industrial innovation and mathematics is a key technology for the industry, interpreted in the broadest sense as any activity of economical or social value, including the service industry. The range of domains of knowledge and of the economic sector that require a variety of mathematical tools and methodology is enormous. The intimate connections between innovation, science and mathematics also demands new strategies for education of students, including more interdisciplinary training.

- The meeting in O ́bidos of the EIMI IPCommittee
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