Event News

Ramos Catarino launches its 2011-2012 innovation award, “Prémio Ramos Catarino Inovação”

Ramos Catarino Innovation award is launched every two years and intends to foster research based entrepreneurial initiatives developed in Portugal, focused on the construction and engineering sectors. This award is targeted for distinguishing value creation propositions based on the construction and engineering sectors and the 2011-2012 edition, has as main topic, “Energy Independence of Buildings”.

The winning team of the Ramos Catarino 2011-2012 Innovation award edition will receive a prize of € 10.000. The deadline for sending applications ends at 13:00h, of the 31st of October, 2011.

Please see more information at,

http://www.premioramoscatarinoinovacao.com/

The 20 Semifinalists from the innovation and entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL MIT Portugal 2011 Venture Competition have been selected.

The judges for the 2011 Edition of ISCTE-IUL MIT Portugal Venture Competition have completed the selection of 20 semifinalist teams that will compete for four prizes worth up to a maximum of 1 million Euros (€ 1m) in financial support. The innovative nature of projects, the potential impact of their products and services in the global market and the quality of the teams, were the elements that most distinguished the candidates for second edition of this international technology-based entrepreneurship and the biggest in Portugal. These Semifinalists have communicated great market potential, innovative technology, impactful products or services, and talented teams that can bring their products to an international marketplace.

• 60 applications, involving 230 professionals, researchers and students submitted
• Early stage ventures come from Portugal, Belgium, Spain, UK, USA and Argentina
• Semi-finalists to be announced June 30

Lisbon, June 3, 2011 - Registration for the second edition of the largest competition of technology-based entrepreneurship in Portugal, the ISCTE-IUL MIT-Portugal Venture Competition, ended on 30 May. 60 applications were submitted that, in total, involve 230 professionals, researchers and students from Portugal and also, for the first time, Belgium, Spain, UK, USA and Argentina, increasing the impact of competition internationally.

Winners and participants of the €1 MM ISCTE-IUL / MIT Portugal Venture Competition spent a networking-packed week in April participating in eTeams III @MIT: an excursion into the MIT innovation ecosystem.  This is the third educational boot camp of the inaugural Venture Competition.  The founders of Around Knowledge, Waydip, Plux, Weadapt, Acellera Therapeutics, and Cell2B were joined by ISCTE-IUL’s Dean for International Affairs, Professor José Paulo Esperança, ISCTE-IUL’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship project director, Gonçalo Amorim, University of Minho’s Vice Rector, Professor Manuel Mota, a visitor at MIT under the auspices of MIT Portugal and a Fulbright Fellowship, José Estabil, IEI Project Director, and Erin Linsky Graeber, Program Manager.

Tangible outcomes from the visit were observed in the connections to potential partners (clinical and industrial) in the US, the Cambridge Innovation Center’s generous offer to host the teams for up to a month, the large number of potential business contacts and peer advisors that the teams developed, and invitations to move forward on joint proposals with MIT faculty and/or entrepreneurs.