By Azucena Marques
In 2024, the Accelerate Future HEI partners convened in Munich for a two-day strategic session hosted at Technical University of Munich International’s innovation hubs, including a visit to the Munich Urban Colab. As a prominent urban innovation hub and living lab, the Colab unites startups, researchers, corporations, and public authorities to develop solutions that exemplify the project’s goal of institutional change through collaboration.
Building on this momentum and global trends, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) created the Técnico Venture Lab, a new startup incubator located on the Oeiras campus. The project is a strategic initiative to support high-potential, tech-driven startups by leveraging Técnico’s laboratories, R&D units, mentoring networks, and strong industry and investor connections. According to Técnico’s President, Rogério Colaço, this initiative is part of a broader strategy to nurture entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology transfer, and it realises a vision in which ideas take shape, knowledge is transformed into impact, and young people can create their future.
With a capacity for 15 teams, it currently hosts 11 startups across aerospace, medical devices, and artificial intelligence. Opened in November 2025, the incubator targets research-driven, globally minded teams, providing access to labs, mentors, investors, and industrial partners in a growth-focused environment.
This ecosystem is further supported by the Técnico Innovation Summit 2026 (TIS 2026), the first annual gathering of Técnico’s innovation community, which occurred on February 3, 2026, at the Técnico Innovation Centre. The summit brought together R&D units, Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR – Plano de Recuperação e Resilência), and European projects, spin-offs, and partners for a one-day event focused on applied science, knowledge transfer, and technological entrepreneurship. These initiatives collectively strengthen ties between academia, industry, and society, expand Técnico’s startup ecosystem, and convert international inspiration, such as that from Munich Urban Colab, into tangible local impact, fully aligned with the goals of the Accelerate Future HEI project.
