Startup Braga and Associação Académica da Universidade do Minho (AAUMinho) promote Innovation Day on June 16, at the Gualtar Campus. The event will bring together entrepreneurs, students and leading professionals from the national entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Designed to promote debate about the opportunities and challenges of innovation in the areas of health, biotechnology and digital economy, the event will mark the start of applications for the pre-acceleration program of Startup Braga and AAUMinho, the Startup Your Point, which will take place at the beginning of next academic year.

"We thought of Innovation Day as the kick-off of the pre-acceleration program that we promote together, and, simultaneously, as a space to challenge students and entrepreneurs to think about innovation. We want the day to be as enriching as possible and allow us to understand the challenges currently faced in different areas," says Luís Rodrigues, director of Startup Braga.

Rui Oliveira, president of AAUMinho, defends that "this event reflects the connection that we have been cementing with Startup Braga. "We know that our community is very entrepreneurial and this type of initiative enhances it even more and can act as an important catalyst for the innovation ecosystem, in a particularly challenging context. Likewise, these initiatives are fundamental as a complement to extracurricular training", he adds.

Designed to take place in a round table format, the event will feature the participation of Ricardo Machado, president of the Digital Transformation Collaborative Lab (DTx CoLab) and vice-rector of the University of Minho, Paulo Pereira, director of innovation and technology strategy at Altice Labs, João Borga, director of the National Innovation Agency, Simão Soares, president of P-BIO, João Carlos Sousa, professor at the School of Medicine of the University of Minho, Pedro Fraga, director of F3M and business angel, and Francisco Guimarães, business manager and strategic relations at INL. Patrícia Patrício, knowledge and intelligence manager at Health Cluster Portugal, Elisabete Sá, professor at the School of Economics and Management, João Miguel Fernandes, professor at the School of Engineering at UMinho, and Alexandre Mendes, investment director at Subvisual, will lead the different panels. The community of startups connected to the innovation hub will also attend the Innovation Day for a conversation about the critical factors for the success of a startup.

Free of charge, but subject to registration, those interested can register for the event on the website www.startpoint.pt.