Innovation and Entrepreneurship

We face a New Agenda for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be more and more the new enabler of competitiveness in Europe and it is essential to mobilize the universities, companies and other actors to the challenge of competitiveness. The importance of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is more and more consolidated and in a time of crisis there is a real possibility of having new results with concrete impacts.

There is a clear sense of a stronger collaboration between Innovation and Entrepreneurship and it offers new solutions to different problems. This New Collaboration experience is very important to Europe. Europe must be able to be the real Platform of a more Entrepreneurial Society, centered in new areas of knowledge and new sectors of value. That´s why the example of these hubs, with their focus on high-added value clusters – like ICT and Fashion, among others – envolving strong partnerships with Multinationals and Start Ups and the local authorities is a good demonstration of this New Strategic Partnership for the Future.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship promote a new set of studies oriented to the real added value of companies in the market, supported by the strategic knowledge and experience of managers and doctorates from the universities. The focus on Innovation and Entrepreneushiop as the drivers of creating added value with international dissemination is a challenge for the future – some Hubs have been developing strong strategic networks of Knowledge with different areas of the world, like Asia and South America.

The focus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship must be a point of departure for the future. The quality of the Effective Education must be the new competitive advantage of these Intelligent Universities, pushed by a global idea of Modernity, Added Value and Excellence. A very clear idea that suits the big challenge that our society really faces and that requires new answers for different questions. The act of global participation in such a demanding society is an exercise of commitment between the individual creativity and the collective cooperation.

The practical colaboration of Relevant Firms and Universities / Hubs of Innovation in the Strategic Ambition of this Agenda is well exemplified by some experiences – with a commitment with innovation, quality and creativity, the message of the distinction will be the right umbrella for a different individual and collective integration of ideas and solutions. Innovation and Entrepreneurship play an intelligent commitment between its local role and its global ambition.

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agenda is a great challenge to our economies and societies. This Collaboration experience is an important contribution to a society that must be able to understand this new time and address effective answers to the different stakeholders of the system. The contribution of Innovation and Entrepreneurshiop will be more important and critical as this message is really understood by the main stakeholders involved in the process.

* General Manager of the Innovation and Knowledge Society in Portugal