PACT met all the regional stakeholders in Alentejo

On July 21 at PACT, in Évora - Portugal, a session was organized as part of the UnicornQuest project, led by PACT.

The meeting was attended by the project's stakeholders at regional level, including: DECSIS, IEFP, TecParques, the University of Évora, the Office of the Secretary of State for the Economy, CCDR Alentejo, IAPMEI and ADRAL.

The meeting started with a short introduction by Professor Soumodip Sarkar and was followed by a presentation of the project’s goals, consortium, and activities by Sara Mateus.

Main topics discussed during the meeting were:

• Initiatives from the University of Evora in collaboration with other entities to support students and researchers in developing and structuring their ideas into businesses and also to attract companies which take advantage of the knowledge from the university to develop and/or improve their products;
• Initiatives from the government, IEFP, and other entities to try to attract people for the region and provide them with adequate formation, if needed, and support the creation of businesses, through programs such as “Empreende XXI”, which offers a set of support options, such as: financial support, support the creation of self-work, professional training, mentorship, specialized consulting services and possibility of incubation.
• Initiatives and policies, which contribute to the attraction of people to the region, for the creation of new businesses, entrepreneurship support and others. Examples: Specific measures to support entrepreneurship at national level, for instance, “Vouchers para Startups - Novos produtos verdes e digitais”; Possible collaborations with networks/programmes such as: Big Data Value Association; “Rede Nacional de Test-beds; Enterprise Europe Network; Digital Innovation Valleys; IEFP: financial support of geographic mobility for work purposes. The attribution of this support depends on the celebration of a work contract or through the creation of self-work, whose services are to be provided in a interior territory, implicating the residency change; Alentejo 2020: support to hire highly qualified human resources, with academic formation equal or above 6 (bachelor, master, phd, post-doc)
• Challenges of the region: lack of qualified personnel; housing solutions; transportation These kinds of meetings should be held frequently to keep the role and purpose of the UnicornQuest project alive. The relationship with the stakeholders in the region is fundamental to carrying out the project in the best possible way.