Future Cities, Future Communities: an accelerator for the Innovation Ecosystem

The role of academic institutions as engines of knowledge and innovation for change and development has never been more critical. The Future Cities, Future Communities innovation accelerator program is part of Nova SBE’s contributions to showcase how academia can effectively extend its role to play beyond the campus, fostering impactful business development and societal progress. Its results and trajectory will be presented this Tuesday, July 2nd, 2:30 pm at campus’ Hovione Hall and its open to everyone to attend. 

The program, developed by Nova SBE's Innovation Ecosystem, explores a model for integrating theoretical insights with practical applications. In this case, addressing the European green and digital transition agenda under three major themes, or verticals: Carbon Neutrality & Net Zero, Urban Living & Proximity & Community Services, and Construction, Infrastructure & Architecture. 

Over seven months, the participant organizations - Cascais City Council, Banco Primus, ACA Group, Brisa Group, LTP Labs, Morais Leitão, Pingo Doce | Jerónimo Martins, Schréder Hyperion, SIBS, Zeiss and Investors Portugal - shared their innovation agenda, expertise and needs; and then discovered, learnt, discussed and got inputs from different stakeholders distributed in four different action tracks: Students and Early-stage Entrepreneurs; Startups and SMEs; Citizens Community; and Researchers. In detail:

# Startups and SMEs Track: it has facilitated partnerships and pilot projects across the three verticals, enabling organizations to explore new ideas and commercial opportunities. An innovation safari in Lisbon and Cascais and face-to-face working sessions further enriched these collaborations, showcasing the transformative power of startups and SMEs. In July 2nd, some of these startups will present their solutions, in a debate with Investors Portugal and Net Zero Insights guests.

# Students & Early-Stage Entrepreneurs Track: by integrating project-based learning (PBL) and business model exercises, this track nurtured future business leaders and innovators. Initiatives like the Master's in Impact Entrepreneurship & Innovation, different school’s skills accelerators and a program bootcamp provided students with practical experience and exposure to real-world challenges. In the wrap-up event, 10 students’ projects will be in exhibition, while students debate their processes with Nova SBE Innovation Ecosystem and UNL – Universidade Nova de Lisboa representatives.

# Research Track: This track celebrates the launching of the "UNL Index - 100 Research Contributions to Future Cities and Communities", a compilation of academic papers from a range of Universidade Nova de Lisboa schools related with the program verticals. The index provides a solid foundation for the collaboration between Academia, market and society in terms of knowledge transfer and innovation – the debate topic that it follow with guests from UNL (Innovation Directorate), Nova SBE (Business and Economics), Nova FCT (Science and Technology) and Nova MS (Medical School).

# Community Track: Focused on citizen engagement, this track involved workshops and creative exercises to envision better urban living environments. The panel on "There's no legitimate innovation without participation and social well-being" will present the encounters outcomes while highlighting the importance of inclusive and participatory approaches to innovation. Workshop facilitators from the fields of architecture and urbanism, alongside two SBE’s community managers, set up the roundtable guests.