Pedro Reis argues that it is necessary to “give space to the economy” and take advantage of the country’s “good moment”

“I think it is essential to leave politics a little and give space to the economy”, asked, this Friday, the Minister of Economy during the closing of the second edition of the Coimbra Invest Summit. Pedro Reis, who praised the municipality’s ability to reinvent itself, made a point of sending a message to the opposition at a time when the viability of the 2025 State Budget remains suspended.

“Portugal is in a good moment. I hope we have the common sense, or the responsibility, that when we are asked for horizons, we do not give election calendars. That when they are asking us for stability to invest, we don’t create a political circus”, insisted Pedro Reis, who also said he prefers to see himself as “minister of companies”: “I like that more than minister of Economy, it’s less pompous”, he reinforced.

On the day that the summit dedicated to attracting investment to the city of knowledge ends, the mayor of Coimbra is already eyeing the next edition. “We are thinking about adding the cluster of tourism next year. Coimbra still has a lot of space, together with our partners, to take advantage of what is good about tourism and to try to avoid, following the example of other cities, what is less good”, said José Manuel Silva.

After a second day dedicated to technology and the space sector (remember HERE the main conclusions), this Friday was time to focus reflection on issues associated with the provision of healthcare and innovation in this field. The morning was also marked by the announcement of a partnership between the Pedro Nunes Institute (IPN) and Coimbra Health (Local Health Unit of Coimbra) for the installation, at Coimbra Hospital, of an IPN delegation dedicated to disruption and testing of solutions. The objective is to facilitate the translation of knowledge from the laboratory to the real world.

Throughout the event, which brought together dozens of startupsbusinesspeople and decision makers, there was still time to mark the opening of registrations for the Female Entrepreneurship Award, which will recognize innovative projects led by women worth a total of €5,000. Registration can be made until November 8th.

Record HERE the complete list of participants and, below, the main conclusions from the last day of the Coimbra Invest Summit 2024:

Promote innovation in healthcare

• Coimbra was once known as the center of medicine in Portugal, a title that the city seems to want to renew with support for strengthening an ecosystem of innovation in health. Despite the quality of talent and the proliferation of startupsthere are challenges that need to be addressed to enhance the competitiveness of national innovation in the world. “We need to work more in a network”, suggests Marta Passadouro, from EIT Health Innostars, a European organization that puts people in touch startupsacademia and industry across Europe.
• For Carlos Alcobia, from Sensing Future Technologies, “Coimbra must continue to promote ecosystems” and, above all, ensure that there is effective collaboration between small entrepreneurs and large companies, particularly for concept testing. “We have an open innovation program where we ask hospitals to bring us challenges and then we open a call to startups help solve these challenges”, shares Marta Passadouro.
• The president of Health Cluster Portugal (HCP), Joaquim Cunha, adds another major challenge for the sector: “we need to do more with less, I think we are unfortunately faced with this”. For the person responsible, this means having to incorporate more and better technology in the provision of care, but also increasing research and development activities. “Maybe, instead of subsidizing innovation spending, we have to start subsidizing the results,” he suggests.
• On the other hand, Joaquim Cunha also lists the sharing of health data as one of the main issues for the future of the sector. “We need to develop a national strategy for digital and data in health, which does not exist and should,” he added.
• To leverage the potential of innovation in health, the Coimbra Local Health Unit (which wants to assert itself as Coimbra Health) entered into a partnership with the IPN that consists of installing a delegation of the institute at the Coimbra Hospital. “What we want is to remove many of the obstacles so that innovators, who are outside the health system, engineers and others, can have a presence in the hospital and interact on a daily basis with health professionals and are available to accept the challenges of innovation”, explained João Gabriel Silva, from the IPN management.