PACT News

Alentejo Science and Technology Park invests €5 million in the construction of two buildings.

By 2020, Évora is expected to become an unavoidable city in the panorama of entrepreneurship in Portugal — it is expected that it will be at that time that the Alentejo Science and Technology Park (PACT) will be fully operational. To this end, around €5 million will be invested in the construction of two buildings that will allow, in total, to house around 60 companies linked to technology, health and aeronautics.

This is the expectation of Soumodip Sarkar, a professor at the University of Évora who on April 6 assumed the position of executive president of PACT, an entity created with the aim of imposing itself as a “center of innovation, knowledge and technology, in the international representation of the Alentejo”.

The project has the presence of companies such as Glintt – Global Intelligent Technologies, CEiiA – Center of Excellence for Innovation in the Automotive Industry and Critical Software which, according to Soumodip Sarkar, should start to invest more in software for aeronautics, with the hiring of 20 engineers, taking advantage of the aeronautics cluster, of the space and defense that has been installed in the region.

Soumodip Sarkar, who has also been, since May 7, vice-rector of the University of Évora with the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and institutional cooperation, also highlights the presence of some startups from the university, namely AlentApp, which develops custom software. It is, he says, something he wants to encourage, not hiding the ambition to involve the knowledge of the university and the polytechnics. “I have the idea of creating a portal where teachers submit their ideas and that is available to everyone.

We want to promote more contests, have more startups,” he says. Another part of the strategy is to “sensitize teachers. One of the problems that I drew attention to 15 years ago and that persists is that teachers need to make some transition of knowledge, not only through the articles they write but also through the creation of startups, something that is still not well regarded today.”

“We want to create a knowledge center in the aerospace and health area in Évora,” he says, recalling that the university recently launched a chair in this area.

The first phase of PACT was inaugurated on September 15, 2015 and also has a business accelerator, which has recently become operational. The second phase, which starts soon, will have European funds, but there will also be a national contribution, which will come from the university and other partners, “some companies that we have been inviting”. One of the two new buildings should be dedicated only to the aeronautical sector. But, explains the president of PACT, the focus from now on will also be in the area of health, namely in data processing.

“My idea is to invite not only European companies to PACT but also from China, India, the United States and Mexico,” he explains. Évora has to gain from the fact that Lisbon is fashionable, as it is a cheaper alternative, just over an hour and a half away. “Companies are looking for other areas because Lisbon is getting very expensive”, he adds.
The university has the majority of the capital of PACT, which when it was created, on December 28, 2011, also had as founders BES, Glintt, the polytechnic institutes of Santarém, Portalegre and Beja, the Alentejo Regional Development Agency (ADRAL), DECSIS – Information Systems and the National Association of Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE).

Soumodip Sarkar believes that entrepreneurship is not a fad. “I think this movement is going to last. I’m very optimistic.” But he identifies some problems: the “lack of engineers” in the country is one of them. On the other hand, we need to speed up taxation. “My suggestion is to simplify the entire tax procedure for startups. We should give them some grace period.” And, he adds, “venture capital in Portugal is still very weak. More support was needed in this way”.