This project (PPExt) has two EU partners: the University of the West of England (UWE) & the Faculty of Engineering of Porto University (FEUP), and three from Brazil: University of São Paulo (USP), Federal University of São Carlos (USFCar) & São Paulo State University (UNESP). The five institutions plan a large three-year joint research programme on a major competitive issue for both the EU and Brazil, with a strong economical and environmental impact: the optimization of production planning processes across several industries. The project will exchange research staff between the EU and Brazil to develop and test industrial extensions to models and optimisation algorithms in production lot sizing, cutting and packing and scheduling in 6 industries: animal nutrition, beverages, glass, dairy products, textiles and furniture. The specific objectives are to: 1. Formulate industrial extensions to production planning models that can handle the complexities of specific industries; 2. Develop methods to solve the models formulated; 3. Test the models and solutions methods in the six selected industry areas in both the EU and Brazil; 4. Disseminate the results within EU and Brazilian academia, and promote the transfer of knowledge from academia to industries; 5. Transfer knowledge between the EU and Brazil. All five partners are experienced in this field of research. Because of their complementary expertise, the partners have collaborated in the past, but at an intermittent pace, not taking full advantage of the potential synergies between them. The exchange programme will allow the partners to carry out a structured and integrated workplan, enabling long term and sustainable collaboration between the ERA and Brazil.