APEMETA is a private and non-profit business association to support the activity and entrepreneurship in the sector. It is also an ENGO. Over its 30 years of existence, APEMETA gained the status of public utility while providing its associated member companies, currently >200 companies, services like technical and legal support to activities or support to internationalization and innovation and technology transfer processes.

APEMETA develops relevant work for the collective support of the Environmental Sector, whose results are recognized not only by the member companies, but others, involved in the environmental sector, and both national and international partners. This relevant know-how and proficiency have been gained through leading or partnering in several projects, many with public co-financing under Portuguese operational programs.

Additionally, the Association leads projects intended directly for reinforcement of SME competitiveness through “action-learning" programs and also projects promoting youth entrepreneurship and the creation of companies and start-ups, especially those focused on Green Economy. APEMETA activities actively try to reach and cover the Environmental Sector as a whole, from students to technical staff working in the companies, from decision makers to researchers, acting both nationally and internationally and working closely with other relevant sectors of the Economy (Construction, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Real State, Retail, Sea, etc)

Possible tasks
- definition of learning methodologies, contribution to OERs and skilling, pilots, knowledge transfer, interaction with SMEs, etc
- Open science and innovation actions, clustering activities
- Foster collaboration, building bridges and breaking silos between actors of the value chains and between primary sectors as well as collective action
- Care to engage SMEs, young professionals, consumers and citizens
- Apply system thinking/system approaches to define challenges, drivers, and root causes of the problem to be addressed
- Identification of the regional & sectoral needs & contexts (environmental, socioeconomic, geographical, cultural)
- Contribution to communication and dissemination strategies definition and uptake
- Coordination with policymakers and operational groups