Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research
28.09.2020
September 28th was an historic day for Fraunhofer Portugal with the launching of the technology transfer, entrepreneurship and innovation program - AHEAD Portugal.
Addressed to the approximately 100 employees of Fraunhofer Portugal, the program was presented in an internal event, held virtually and led by Liliana Ferreira, Director at Fraunhofer Portugal, Pedro Almeida, Executive Director at Fraunhofer Portugal, Inês Campos Costa, Head of Fraunhofer Portugal Venture, and Thorsten Lambertus, Founder of the AHEAD program in Germany.
AHEAD Portugal is the knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship and innovation program, under the umbrella of Fraunhofer Portugal Venture, which will count on private equity and entrepreneurial initiatives. It has been created at and for Fraunhofer, so that the actual people who have developed the technologies, have now the opportunity to take them into the market. AHEAD Portugal is tailored to challenge and promote complementary teams, establish actionable roadmaps, nurture pitching skills and intensively expose teams and tech to a broad external stakeholders’ network. In close connection with the German equivalent program, launched in 2019, AHEAD Portugal will benefit from this sharing and knowledge acquired over the years, as the German program gathers the expertise of having supported over 500 high-tech spin-offs & pushed over 200 ventures through their previous incubation system.
AHEAD Portugal, which includes guidance, training, and exposure to an external stakeholders’ network, aims at translating world-class technology into successful startups and take innovative ideas to market, by incubating spin-offs and concluding licensing agreements based on Fraunhofer technologies. Through guidance, training, attracting investors and partners, AHEAD Portugal program will take research to market as a product and / or service. It will expose external entrepreneurs to the potential developed by Fraunhofer Portugal specialists, leading to the foundation of startups.