PACT News

The Startup LABWARE project, which started in the last quarter of 2019, now comes to an end, with the holding of the Conference “Smart Cities, Smart Future?”.

The Startup LABWARE, co-financed by the European Union, within the scope of the collective action support system (SIAC) of the Alentejo 2020 Regional Operational Program, was structured in an integrated way, by promoting the development of several initiatives, based on an analysis of the state of the art in urban and technological terms, at a local level, which allowed the identification of the region’s needs for subsequent development of solutions for smart cities and analysis of opportunities for business and projects that could be developed in and for the Alentejo region.

The project also included benchmarking actions at national (Braga), European (Vienna Austria and Brussels) and international (Dubai) levels, and participation in the Smart City Expo World Congress event, the main international event on smart cities and urban solutions organized by Fira de Barcelona, in November 2022.

The core of the project – actions to detect, stimulate and support entrepreneurship and accelerate the development of technology-based solutions – included the holding of several idea competitions, provision of monetary support services (scholarships) and mentoring, workshops and bootcamps, incubation services, digital transformation mentoring and certified training in project management methodologies.

The Startup LABWARE participation platform was also designed – an interface between the citizen, the city, the municipality/government, companies and the research and innovation system of the Alentejo region, which aims to identify needs and propose solutions that respond to urban challenges. It is an infrastructure prepared to coordinate processes and spaces for participation, to boost the collaboration of citizens and organizations in the definition of strategies and policies that promote the sustainable development of urban space, in an active perspective as co-promoters of projects and proposals.

The last activity included in the project, the Conference “Smart Cities, Smart Future?”, took place on March 23rd and 24th, at PACT, and received more than 15 speakers and 150 participants. Participants attended the sharing of information, knowledge and experiences on topics such as the digital transformation processes of cities and their financing, sustainable and smart mobility, as well as successful case studies, and also enjoyed networking moments. Through its actions, the Startup LABWARE project supported about 25 entrepreneurial projects, which were made known in one of the spaces of the Conference.

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This project is effectively a fundamental lever for the development of this region.
Luís Montenegro