World Talents has launched its first Entrepreneurship Award, a global prize for science and tech ventures with business potential. It created the award together with seven Portuguese higher-education and research institutions.
The award has drawn more than 150 qualified applications from Portugal and abroad. It connects founders with mentors, international experts, and investors from the World Talents Global Talent Portugal program network. An international jury will now select 15 finalists to pitch on stage in Lisbon, where eight winners will be named.
Seven Academic Partners Behind the Award
The partners are ISTEC (Lisbon and Porto), the University of Coimbra, the University of Algarve, the University of Beira Interior, the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, ESAD, and the SEAPOWER research center.
They span Portugal from north to south, and their fields cover engineering and design through to maritime research. Together they are jointly offering more than €100,000 in value across cash prizes, business-plan development, consultancy, and mentoring.
“Bringing together seven higher-education and research institutions around this initiative shows there is room for us to work together on valuing ideas and stimulating scientific entrepreneurship,” says Paulo Duarte, lecturer and researcher at ISTEC Lisboa. “Above all, we want this award to be a real opportunity to help good projects move forward.”
More Than 150 Applications, Most From Operating Startups
Applicants include entrepreneurs, students, alumni, and university spin-offs in Portugal and abroad. Many are already well beyond the idea stage.
More than half of the projects (56.6%) already have early prototypes or first users, and 18.9% of those already have paying customers. Only 7.5% are at the ideation stage. Just over half of applicants (56.6%) are also registered or incorporated startups.
Digital technologies account for the largest share of submissions (36.5%), followed by health and life sciences (18.2%), and energy (10.7%). By location, 30.8% of applicants are based in Portugal, 19.5% elsewhere in Europe, and 5.7% in the United States. Most teams are small, with 88.1% made up of between one and ten members.
“The volume and quality of applications confirm what we see on the ground: there is a generation of researchers and entrepreneurs with market-ready projects, waiting for access to capital and direction,” says Bernardo Saraiva, co-founder of World Talents. “That is exactly the bridge we want to build.”
From Shortlist to Final
Applications are now being assessed by a panel of international judges from the World Talents network. The finalists will pitch at a public event in Lisbon on November 26, at a venue to be announced.
1. A presentation on university rankings during World Talents’ visit to the University of Coimbra. 
1. Gonçalo de Sá, World Talents’ University Partnerships and Program Director, at the University of Coimbra. 
The World Talents Entrepreneurship Award is hosted by ISTEC Lisbon with its academic partners. 
1. World Talents co-founder Bernardo Saraiva with Paulo Duarte, a lecturer and researcher at ISTEC. 
World Talents visits ISTEC. 
A World Talents presentation at the University of Coimbra. 
World Talents at ESAD. 
World Talents at the University of Algarve.
The eight winning teams will receive cash prizes, support developing their business plans, and consultancy and mentoring from international experts. They will also receive introductions to investment networks and internationalization opportunities.
World Talents and its partners take no equity or intellectual property in any participating project. Their role is to help the ventures grow, not to own them.
Built on Five Years of Partnerships
World Talents launched Global Talent Portugal in 2021, one of the country’s first talent-mobility programs. Through it, the company built partnerships with universities including Coimbra, Évora, Algarve, Beira Interior, and many others.
Those relationships now form a foundation for the award. The same network gives Portuguese students, researchers, and entrepreneurs access to mentoring and workshops.
It also opens talks with executives from companies such as Google, Salesforce, and Palo Alto Networks, and with investors managing millions in assets.
For advisors and families considering Portugal’s research- and talent-linked pathways, the November 26 final in Lisbon will show this network at work. It brings together academic partners, founders, and the people supporting them.
To learn more about the World Talents Entrepreneurship Award or to attend the final in Lisbon on November 26, visit award.worldtalents.com.
