We’re thrilled to share that Universidade Católica Portuguesa is leading ELEVATE, a European project powered by the EIT HEI Initiative. This initiative promotes entrepreneurship and innovation in science, health, and creative industries.
Funded by the European Union, ELEVATE brings together institutions from Portugal, Italy, and Denmark. Its goal is to transform knowledge into impactful, real-world solutions. The project focuses on strategic sectors, including (bio)food technology, (bio)medicine, artificial intelligence, and cultural industries.
João Cortez, Director of the Research and Innovation Office at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, highlights the project’s ambition. According to him, “It aims to drive institutional change and strengthen strategic partnerships. This creates an environment conducive to the creation of startups and new job opportunities.”
Moreover, ELEVATE invests in interdisciplinary training, project acceleration, and specialized mentoring. It offers a wide range of activities that connect universities, companies, municipalities, and research centers. In addition, more than 25 training initiatives — including courses and summer schools — will be available to students, staff, and the broader innovation ecosystem.
As a result, the project is expected to make an impact across three European innovation ecosystems. ELEVATE represents a unique opportunity to foster a sustainable, entrepreneurial, and competitive future.
A plataforma ELEVATE consortium is coordinated by Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal), a member of the SACRU network and the Transform4Europe alliance. It also includes: Università degli Studi di Trieste (Italy – Transform4Europe member); Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy – SACRU network member); Aarhus University (Denmark); Food4Sustainability CoLAB (Portugal); TecmaFoods (Portugal – food sector enterprise); and MateraHub (Italy – centre for cultural and creative innovation).
At Universidade Católica Portuguesa, five research centres across the country are involved in the project – Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF/ESB); Research Centre for Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR/EA); Research Centre in Management and Economics (CEGE/CPBS); CATÓLICA-LISBON Research Unit in Business and Economics (CUBE/CLSBE); Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Health (CIIS/FM).
All activities are coordinated through the Research and Innovation Office (RIO).
👉 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: https://eit-hei.eu/projects/elevate/