University & Industry Collaboration Fueling Portugal’s Innovation Ecosystem
The rise of collaboration between Portuguese universities and private industry has transformed the Portuguese innovation landscape, but there…
The rise of collaboration between Portuguese universities and private industry has transformed the Portuguese innovation landscape, but there are still practical and philosophical shifts that can catapult the ecosystem to another level. Those were among the key takeaways from a compelling discussion on the integral role of universities in a healthy innovation and startup environment featuring influential leaders António Grilo, Nuno Mendonça, and Chris Lennon at this year’s SIM Conference in Porto.
Moderated by journalist Rute Sousa Vasco, the panel offered perspectives from both Portuguese and international contexts, addressing a wide range of topics from how Portugal’s R&D institutions can enhance entrepreneurship opportunities to the country’s prospects of attracting even more global talent given the current instability for research funding in the United States.
Portuguese Universities as Catalysts of Innovation
The President of Portugal’s National Innovation Agency (ANI), António Grilo, explained that while companies were once hesitant to engage with academic research, they are now proactive partners seeking out university labs for cutting-edge knowledge and talent. Grilo made clear that universities are no longer isolated ivory towers, but rather collaborative communities increasingly engaged with industry, marking one of the most significant evolutions in the country’s innovation ecosystem over the past decade.
“Bringing the best of our talent, our students, and research labs in the universities together with what’s happening at the company level has been quite dramatically changing our economic landscape,” stated Grilo, who served as a professor and department head at Nova University prior to accepting his position at ANI.
“Ten years ago, if I would approach a company with an idea in terms of research, most companies would say I’m not really interesting. We see the opposite now. Companies are approaching research labs and universities in order to make this collaboration happen. Of course, we have the public incentives for that, but also we see that it’s more than just public incentives. It’s because they recognize the importance of these talents, of these bright ideas, this creativity, in order to make their companies more competitive.”
Grilo revealed how this shift has also altered the outlook of researchers and students, many of whom now view entrepreneurship as a legitimate and desirable career path. Several successful Portuguese startups trace their origins back to university environments, highlighting the fertile ground these institutions provide for innovation.
Shifting Focus from Unicorns to Ecosystem Strength
What qualifies as success should be carefully considered advised Chris Lennon when addressing the strength of Portugal’s innovation and startup environment. As President of Canadian multinational Empowered Startups, Lennon has been intimately involved in the creation and development of the HQA® Program, which attracts foreign direct investment to Portuguese universities to fund collaborative, innovative R&D Projects.
While many fixate on the few startups that rise meteorically to earn unicorn status, Lennon opined that a truly robust innovation sector is measured by its depth and breadth. Though he acknowledged the widespread attention unicorns generate, Lennon cautioned against an overemphasis on producing these outliers and offered an alternate view on what is most healthy for the startup ecosystem.
“Let’s focus instead on building a broad-based system so that we’re supporting a huge volume of startups and industry university collaborations. Because if any of us could pick the ten unicorns that would come out five years from now, we could all retire and go golfing, right?” Lennon joked to the delight of his fellow panelists.
“I know there’s people that try to make a career out of picking the winners, but I think it’s a much more profitable and likely way to generate a positive outcome is to make sure that nothing is missed by planting the seeds, providing the support, and instilling an ecosystem of collaboration between industry and research at universities so that we can spin out more ventures, more commercialization attempts, and through sheer volume, we’re going to produce more of those unicorns. But also we’re just going to produce more of those profitable companies that last, whether unicorns or not. There’s value in just having companies that last that have stable workforces that provide jobs to people in the local economy. I think that’s vastly important.”
Lennon emphasized the importance of scalable support systems that allow innovations to be tested and spun out, even if they are not destined to be billion-dollar enterprises. His experience of working closely with the private sector and universities in Canada provided insight into the value of triage systems in tech transfer offices, which help determine which projects to commercialize and which to release for community-led development.
Building Administrative and Structural Support
This process has certainly been effective at the University of Coimbra, where its incubator, Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN), ranks as one of the world’s top ten with respect to university spinoffs. The University’s Vice Rector, Nuno Mendonça, used IPN as an example of effective university-based startup support in making the point that Portuguese universities must strengthen their administrative support structures for entrepreneurship.
Mendonça acknowledged that entrepreneurship is not traditionally a core mission of universities, which prioritize education and research. However, he lobbied for creating a robust support system for budding entrepreneurs, such as incubators and IP management offices.
In addition, he called for systemic change in academia’s mindset, advocating for the integration of entrepreneurship education across all disciplines. He stressed that it is not enough to support student-led startups; young researchers must also be equipped with the skills and resources to commercialize their innovations.
Portugal’s Opportunity to Attract Global Talent
A timely discussion emerged on Europe’s role in attracting global talent, especially amid research funding instability in the United States.
“We work with research institutions in the US, a lot of tier one universities that are seeing significant cuts to their funding for core research. And some of the institutions we’re working with are worried about seeing overhead budgets being slashed from 55% of funding to 15%. So, those are those are significant numbers,” Lennon detailed.
“I know some that are concerned about how they’re going to continue to operate their labs. So I think this is a huge opportunity for those that can capitalize on it. There’s a whole slew of investors, startup talent, entrepreneurs, but there’s also academics that are looking for new opportunities. And if you can figure out how to capitalize on that and attract them, I think it’s a huge opportunity.”
Mendonça agreed this is a significant opportunity for Portugal to draw international researchers to the country, however, he cautioned that this must be done strategically, with a clear national policy focused on creating research hubs in specific regions aligned with existing strengths and infrastructure.
Grilo emphasized the importance of not merely importing talent but also ensuring that these individuals can thrive in well-equipped research environments. Without world class infrastructure, attracting elite researchers would be unsustainable. Therefore, he suggested, any national effort must be backed by long-term investments in facilities and institutional capacity.
Tackling IP Policy and Life Sciences Funding Gaps
One of the central challenges discussed was Portugal’s struggle to attract private venture capital (VC), especially in life sciences. Grilo disclosed that while Portuguese digital startups have successfully attracted VC investment, biotech and medtech startups, which have received significant European Innovation Council grants, often fail to secure the matching private funding required to fully leverage this support.
This gap is partially explained by the long development timelines in life sciences, which do not align with typical VC fund maturity cycles. Grilo suggested that Portugal must address this by not only increasing the availability of patient capital but also by improving investor expertise in complex, regulated sectors. All three speakers called for a mix of public and private initiatives to bridge this funding gap and ensure that promising research does not stall before reaching market viability.
A Prosperous Future Driven by Collaboration
The future of Portugal’s knowledge economy lies in its ability to unite public institutions, private capital, and global talent under a shared, strategic vision. Though policy can shape a part of this process, collaborative efforts from both internal and external stakeholders along with a willingness to embrace a new mindset will ultimately drive the formation of sustainable, systemic support structures.
Innovative initiatives like the HQA® Program are providing tangible evidence of this model and inspiring further action from several stakeholders who are committed to playing a part in improving Portugal’s innovation ecosystem. By enabling a broad base of innovative startups through improved infrastructure and culture rather than focusing on a narrow chase for unicorns, Portuguese universities have the ability to alter both the outcomes and outlooks of the growing group of academics who now view entrepreneurship as a desirable career path.
Learn more about the HQA® Program
