According to this Notice, the Centers for Impact Entrepreneurship aim to stimulate local and regional Ecosystems of Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, Incubation, Acceleration, and Training processes that have a real Positive Impact on Civil Society, “With the transition from Portugal 2020 to Portugal 2030, where we are now, it was possible to create a financing instrument within the scope of public policy for Social Innovation, specifically aimed at financing Structures like this and we called this financing instrument ‘Centers for Impact Entrepreneurship’, explains Filipe Almeida, President of Portugal Inovação Social.

These programs are the result of collaboration between public, private, and social economy entities and are supported and co-financed by Social Investors, including the Lisbon City Council, the GALP Foundation, and the Santander Foundation, with whom Casa do Impacto has worked closely in the past.

For thirty-six months, starting on November 29, 2024, and ending on November 29, 2027, CONNECT promotes the transfer of scientific and empirical knowledge between Academia and Civil Society in the fields of Social Innovation and Impact Entrepreneurship through the co-creation of Incubation and Acceleration processes for new ideas and innovative projects, as well as the training of Entrepreneurs, Social Organizations and the Academic Community, based on the combination of field experience and the best scientific, technical and technological knowledge of the moment. CONNECT is another step towards democratizing Impact and promoting systemic change in areas such as Housing, Health, Sustainability, Circular Economy, Social Cohesion, Employment, and Inclusion. We seek answers that not only solve problems but also transform entire systems or, at the very least, contribute to that change.

The planned activities build on the experience and the Incubation and Acceleration Programs already implemented in the field by the Partners, in particular by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa through Casa do Impacto, to improve processes, methodologies, and tools through the knowledge generated in the Academy, while also filling in the gaps in the life cycle of Social Innovation through new Capacity Building Programs that complement the existing ones. At the same time, it facilitates the connection and direct access of the Academy to the empirical universe of Entrepreneurs, Projects, and Social Organizations, resulting in the codification of new processes, methodologies, and instruments, as well as the development of applied research, which generates scalable solutions. João Seixas, Pro-Rector for Socio-territorial Innovation at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa believes that this type of instrument and tool can help Society to update itself and gain elasticity in the search for increasingly innovative solutions: “Through a mobility structure, we will be able to inject this capacity for Innovation into Society, which is sorely in need of this transformation, and then influence public policy, which is also in dire need of new visions of the territory and Society. Many of the old recipes are important, but many no longer work for the problems we have.”

 

To promote this transformation, the initiative is based on three basic objectives common to all those involved: Improve, Add, and Amplify.

 

1. IMPROVE: To improve and consolidate the Incubation and Acceleration Processes available for the different phases of the Social and Territorial Innovation cycle, applying the most up-to-date scientific knowledge to the Programs set up in the field by the Partners. Using Casa do Impacto’s Programs and Community of Entrepreneurs, Organizations, and Startups as a testing ground, the aim is to co-create new program content, training methods, and tools that integrate into existing Programs.

 

2. ADD: To design and develop new training processes that complement and enhance existing programs, promoting closer ties between Academia and Social Organizations. It will contribute to the development of new ideas and projects within their sphere of activity, enhancing their scalability and ultimately addressing the organization’s Sustainability challenges. Based on a prospective analysis, the aim is to examine the most relevant social and environmental problems in a segmented manner, developing models, tools, and new programs to strengthen the phases of the Innovation Cycle that are less explored within the Ecosystem.

 

3. AMPLIFY: Collect and analyze information from the field, obtained from the experiences of projects and Organizations participating in the Programs, allowing it to be codified and transformed into new knowledge and disseminated within the Ecosystem. With the implementation of the Programs and the results obtained, the aim is to encourage research projects at Universities and to share a transversal training process that can be replicated by other Incubators/Accelerators and in different territories.

 

This initiative covers a large number of people. The direct recipients are the participants in the activities implemented by the Consortium, including the primary audiences of the entities involved: Entrepreneurs, Students, Researchers, and Teachers – all those who have the will to make it happen. The beneficiaries of the Social Innovation projects developed in the Incubation, Acceleration, and Capacity Building processes are the indirect recipients, as well as other Impact Entrepreneurship Centers, Social Innovation Incubators, and Ecosystem Stakeholders in the Lisbon region and at the national level, to whom the materials and results of the initiative will be disseminated. Policymakers will also be able to rely on the data and solutions tested over the Consortium’s lifetime to create more informed and comprehensive public policies.

“It’s strategic for the Ecosystem, (…) the culmination of the Portugal Social Innovation process, and also the beginning of a certain territorial decentralization of competencies that will be fundamental in laying the foundations for the future of Social Innovation in Portugal,” argues Frederico Fezas-Vital, Executive Director of the Católica-Lisbon Yunus Social Innovation Center, reinforcing the need to come together in collaboration, promoting the synergies and partnerships that are so necessary in Social Innovation.

CONNECT is a Consortium that reinforces our vision that Impact must be present in all areas and sectors of Society and that this is the only way to build a more informed, financially viable, and sustainable future, one that accompanies and responds to changing times, as Santa Casa has always done. “Santa Casa (…) has accompanied the evolution of Portuguese society, always seeking to develop answers and solutions to the challenges of each moment”, the Director of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Social Economy, Luís Rego, defends.

We are grateful for the enormous trust of all the Financing Programs and Funds, Stakeholders, Partners, Social Investors, Teams, and Entrepreneurs who are and will be part of this initiative, which, more than its thirty-six months of life, will undoubtedly mark the years to come and strengthen the Social Innovation Ecosystem in Portugal.

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