By the end of year 2007, Rui L. Reis, Director of the 3B’s Research Group, received the award "BES Inovação" (sponsored by BES, a Portuguese Bank), in the category of forests, with the project entitled "New composite materials Cork-Polymer". This project, done in cooperation with the Portuguese company Corticeira Amorim SGPS, with whom the research group has been strengthening his partnership, having as goal the development of new products and applications made of or with cork. In this specific case, the objective of the work is to develop new products based on the usage and valorization of cork industry residues resulting from the different stages of transformation inherent to the industrial process. This way, the project aims to combine the unique caracteristics of cork with plastic materials of natural and synthetic origin.