The scope of the COnCEPT project is the implementation of a semantically driven collaboration framework to be integrated into future synchronous/asynchronous collaborative design environments, dedicated to assist professional industrial designers when distributed during the early stages of the design process and in collaboration/communication with their clients. A number of research and technological challenges will be addressed, including the semantic integration of collaborative tools and data, effective methods for communication and interaction among distributed teams, group awareness and the use of metaphors for conceptual design; which have unique considerations and applications during early-stage product design.