Portugal gathers top innovators

“These events, where entrepreneurs, industry representatives, investors, programme managers and EIT Health representatives come together, are the ideal space for start-ups to validate their innovations. It’s great that the innovators from all around Europe could experience the innovation ecosystem in Portugal. Portuguese start-ups and researchers are one of the most active in the European education and acceleration programmes run by EIT Health,” underlined Nuno Viegas, Business Creation Director and Regional Manager for Portugal, EIT Health InnoStars.

EIT Health Innovation Fellowship Network Alumni Showcase

EIT Health Innovation Fellowship Network Alumni Showcase is the annual event, where top alumni from the various needs-led innovation EIT Health programmes, showcase their extraordinary successes, both entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial. The event took place between 6-7 of November in Lisbon, and gathered more than 300 people in Pavilhão do Conhecimento. The agenda also promoted a cross-pillar collaboration, where 22 Needs-led Innovation Alumni met up with the 36 finalists of Starship, the 15 finalists of Innostars HeadStart, and 11 best European start-ups of EIT Health Medtech Bootcamp.

During the EIT Health Innovation Fellowship Network Alumni Showcase three best teams were recognized and awarded with financial prizes up to €3000:

• Best Senior Entrepreneur  – NUA SURGICAL from BioInnovate Ireland, NUI Galway
• Best Junior Entrepreneur – Breaz from MOEBIO, BIOCAT
• Best Pitch Award form Audience – FREDMILL – Fall Reduction and Evaluation Device from the EIT Health StarShip, University of Coimbra

This collaboration between programmes was managed by Instituto Pedro Nunes, coordinated by the University of Oxford in partnership with the University of Coimbra, IESE Business School, RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden, NUI Galway, BIOCAT and in co-operation with Fellowship Network Partners from the EIT Health Alumni Network and the EIT Health Innostars.

EIT Health Medtech Bootcamp

Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN) hosted between 4-6 of November the EIT Health Medtech Bootcamp Portuguese Roadshow. The programme started in Coimbra with sessions related to co-design and co-development, pitch training, and network. In addition, two successful examples from MedTech related companies in Coimbra Ecosystem were presented. The start-ups had also an opportunity to visit 9th International Conference on Current and Future Trends of Information and Communication Technologies in Healthcare, that took place at IPN. On the last day of the event, the participants went to Lisbon to join the networking meeting of EIT Health in Pavilhão do Conhecimento. The eleven European start-ups were part of this EIT Health Accelerator initiative, which included 2 months of intensive training and 4 weeks of a roadshow across 4 European countries, in an aim to learn about different healthcare markets and systems. Among the final winners were start-ups @Onira Research, @deepc. and @BrainGuard.

EIT Health Medtech Bootcamp is a the EIT Health Accelerator initiative coordinated by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, with the partnership of Universidad de Navarra, Instituto Pedro Nunes, Medical Valley EMN e.V, Uniwersytet Medyczny w Łodzi and Medicen Paris Region.