Finalist

Young Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award

Universidade NOVA Lisboa

Finalist of the Young Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award

"Fostering a knowledge-based and high-impact innovation ecosystem."


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Summary

NOVA is the youngest public University in the Lisbon area ranking top 9 in QS World University Rankings 2021 among Young European Universities.
NOVA is fully committed, across its 9 Schools, to promote a knowledge-based and high-impact value creation activity by rooting an entrepreneurial culture within its community and through collaborations with industry and society. A fascinating record of accomplishment in terms of innovation and entrepreneurial activities has been achieved. Entrepreneurship is deeply incorporated in NOVA’s DNA, but we do not settle for what we have accomplished. We keep developing new programs having in mind one key element: People. It is certainly not by chance that NOVA is a finalist in three different categories at the Triple E awards: Nova SBE Entrepreneurship Institute aims to empower and prepare all students with an entrepreneurial mindset while building a dynamic community alongside startups and partners, creating a booming environment for impactful ideas.
Nova IMS Innovation and Analytics lab works in the interception of people and data to create and take advantage of the new possibilities it enables. At Nova IMS, innovation is about new and positive ways to create meaningful learning opportunities.
At NOVA University and especially at Rectory level, we explore the potential of creating muldisciplinary teams and programs. We believe that Innovation and entrepreneurship are essential to solve world’s economic and societal challenges. We believe in the power of transferable skills and collaboration, the power of empathy and creativity, the power of visualization and storytelling, of being global and civic!

Key People


Prof. Isabel Rocha
Vice Rector for Research, Innovation and value creation
Nova Impact Office,  Nova University Lisbon



Helder Lopes
Head of Nova Impact Office
Nova Impact Office,  Nova University Lisbon



Carla Portela
Entrepreneurship and Innovation manager
Nova Impact Office,  Nova University Lisbon



Rui Silva
Innovation and tecnology transfer expert
Nova Impact Office,  Nova University Lisbon


Acknowledgements

NOVA University is a people centred University, focused on creating value to the society. We understand the power of close partnerships and collaborations to create impact.
We count more than 600+ protocols but would like to highlight some of them:
Santander Universities, who constantly maintains a strong commitment to inclusion and education, entrepreneurship and employment, by granting scholarships, including social support grants, the acquisition of transversal and digital practices, dedicated to students but also to teachers, researchers and entrepreneurs.
NOVA Mentors Network, a pool of several Mentors with expertise in all areas of knowledge that dedicate some of their time in a pro-bono format to give back to the University their knowledge, time and experience. Our programs and events are largely enriched by their participation and engagement.
Our protocols with different Venture Capitals such as Indico Capital Partners, Armilar Ventures, Bionova Capital or Portugal ventures. Our partners in different programs support the community with mentoring, inspirational talks and access to funds.
Our remarkable innovation hubs from our schools, who do an extraordinary job in promoting the entrepreneurial mindset and empowering a thriving technology ecosystem in each school:
The Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute and the Leadership for Impact knowledge Center from Nova SBE, The Nova Innovation and Analytics Lab from Nova IMS, the Nova TechShip from School of Sciences and Technology, the FCSH Innovation Centre from Nova Social and Human Sciences School, among several others.

Images

Entrepreneurship competition1

Entrepreneurship competition2

Nova Innovation day

Entrepreneurship competition3

Nova campus

Nova Impact Team

Starters academy

Haddad Entrpreneurship Institute

Nova innovation lab

ITQB plants day with kids

FCSH Best business idea program

NOVA idea competition

Startup Research program

IMPACT STORY

Impacting lifes

Starters Academy is the oldest multidisciplinary entrepreneurship program of NOVA, focused on the importance of multidisciplinary and multicultural teams. It is a one-of-a-kind program in the academic scene, running since 2009 and following a truly multidisciplinary approach – from the teachers to the students and mentors enrolled in the program.
Building upon the fact that NOVA has 9 Schools in different areas of knowledge – from Health, Chemistry and Engineering to Data Science, Law, Humanities or Business – Starters has some features that make it unique. First, it brings together students from all NOVA schools to create teams with complementary backgrounds. Secondly, because this also applies to teachers that come from all the NOVA ecosystem. Third, students follow a project-based learning approach, going from ideation, business development and prototyping to the final pitch presentation and awards. Students also use a unique simulation game that mimics a close-to-real scenario of a startup, creating many exciting moments on the decision-making process. Moreover, classes are taught in NOVA’s different schools and in incubators around Lisbon for them to have the sense of the entrepreneurial environment. Finally yet importantly, we engage Starters Alumni by making them mentors of the following edition teams. This brings a sense of belonging and they become true ambassadors of Starters and the teams they support.
It is very rewarding to see that some of NOVA's most successful students attended Starters Academy and are now driving change in our society by founding innovative startups or taking senior positions in established companies.

LEARNINGS

Lessons learned

Science-based entrepreneurship is at the core of our mission of creating value to the society. However, we do feel that it is always challenging to ensure scientists are motivated and have the conditions to translate their research results to the marketplace. Over the past years, we have been devising new strategies at NOVA to equip scientists with value creation lenses and incentivizing them to create new spin-out companies. We have launched Sciencepreneur, a course designed for scientists seeking to broaden the idea of what innovation is and to know how to create value from their research activities. This course provides PhD students, young scientists and even more senior researchers with proper tools needed to put their research and ideas into a wider context, namely on the valorisation of research results and their benefits to the economy and society at large, and is already benefitting dozens of researchers from NOVA. Moreover, we have launched a regulation to formally recognize companies born from the knowledge produced at NOVA, giving them a set of incentives that include: exclusive licensing of IP developed by the promoters, free of charge until they reach the commercialization stage; facilitated access to equipment and infrastructure; or by reducing teaching time so they can dedicate more time to the development of the startup. We have a TTO following international best practices and have recently revised our IP policy, defining that 50% of revenues go directly to the inventors’ pocket. 19 spin-offs were formally recognized since 2019.

FUTURE PLANS

What's coming?

1. Innovation District – NOVA University Lisbon recently launched the Innovation District, a project that aims to create a unique and sustainable lifestyle in a new geography of innovation and technological knowledge. Having the NOVA School of Science and Technology as its central point, the
Innovation District places knowledge, qualified talent and innovation as an engine for urban development and transformation.
2. Venture_A5 – This venture aims to create an international reference hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in Life Sciences and Health by creating synergies between NOVA Medical School, ITQB, IHMT, School of Business and Economics and other external entities like iBET or Gulbenkian Institute of Science. With a new bio-incubator, tailored acceleration programs, and a pre-seed investment fund, this project aims to contribute to the creation of next most promising startups in Portugal.
3. NOVA Institute of Art and Technology – NOVA IAT will be a centre of excellence in art and technology, which will contribute to social harmony and inclusion, promoting intercultural dialogue between different social groups, through training, research, innovation and the provision of services, in an international context of excellence.
4. Proof of Concept – We are creating a proof of concept fund with tickets of 30K€-50K€ to support researchers with promising research results over 12 months, aiming to increase the TRL of the technologies they have developed in their labs.
5. Sciencepreneur – We will take the Sciencepreneur program to the next level by matching scientists with business-oriented MBA candidates from the Lisbon MBA (#1 FT ranking international course).

KEY STATISTICS

110+

Active Startups created by NOVA alumni and researchers

1

Unicorn (Outsystems - $9.5 Billion Valuation)

600+

Million EUR raised by NOVA Startups

2500+

Students per year that engage in Entrepreneurial activities (5-yr average: 2016-2021)

30+

Entrepreneurship training initiatives across the University (in 2021), including 4 Multidisciplinary Entrepreneurship initiatives involving students from ALL NOVA Schools

19

Formally recognized NOVA Spin-off® (165+ jobs created)

Triple E Awards

The Triple E Awards are a global recognition of efforts toward the quest for entrepreneurship and engagement in higher education. It is the first award to focus specifically on different dimensions of the universities' third mission. Implemented regionally, the Triple E Awards aim to foster change in universities and to emphasize their role in their communities and ecosystems.

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