European Innovation Academy returns to Porto in the summer

Considering the biggest program of technological and digital innovation and entrepreneurship in the world, the European Innovation Academy (EIA) returns to Porto to promote the gathering between hundreds of students who come from the most prestigious universities and specialists from large companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, or Facebook. The event will take place between July 16th and August 4th, and will be hosted in the city until, at least, 2026.

“If I had to sum up our goal for hosting EIA, it would be to ensure the transformation of every participant, knowing that, although indirectly, this individual phenomenon will also help nurture the transformation of Porto itself”, the vice-mayor of the City Hall stated, in the event’s presentation session, at the rectory of Universidade do Porto.

Recalling the first edition, Filipe Araújo highlighted how EIA gathered in Porto, in 2022, more than 500 hundred students from 46 universities and 27 entities, with 125 suggested ideas for businesses.

The vice-mayor of the City Hall was sure that “this innovation will transform the city as long as we are capable of working with everyone, being that those who visit us are a very important and active part”.

As for Filipe Araújo, EIA is aligned with the strategy of the Municipality in support of innovation where, he mentioned, the creation of Porto Innovation Hub is included, instrument from which the autarchy “works to promote innovation so that it becomes the foundation of an ecosystem, of a transversal community, easily recognisable in any context – municipal teams, academy, renowned businesses, NGOs, startups, incubators, I&D centres, associations, etc”.

Thinking of Porto as “a city of experimentation”, a “live laboratory”, the vice-mayor states that the city is always “predisposed to foster those who want to risk and innovate”. “Our plan is to lay the foundation and form shock waves that arrive to the biggest possible number of citizens”, Filipe Araújo emphasises.

As for the dean of Universidade do Porto, the “establishment of EIA in the city is a unique opportunity for hundreds of university students, many of them Portuguese, to live an enriching experience of entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology”, António de Sousa Pereira states.