Around 260 Algarve companies, from all municipalities in the region, were challenged to find innovation in themselves, over 16 awareness-raising sessions for the Inova Algarve programme. The objective is that, after a self-assessment, these entrepreneurs can develop projects to apply for community funds.
The last awareness-raising action took place on June 28, at the NERA auditorium, in Loulé, and the balance of these sessions, which are intended to help entrepreneurs apply for community funds, is "extremely positive", according to Vítor Neto, president of NERA, which promotes Inova Algarve in partnership with AMAL.
Vítor Neto explained to Sul Informação that “the role of this program is to help companies detect potential and then help formalize their applications for community funds. Sometimes this language is very complex, with terminology that turns people off, who think these funds are not for them. It is a very formatted language of the European Union, with all the difficulties that this represents».
In the 16 municipalities, there were «between 260 and 280 entrepreneurs, which is good, because they are not mass initiatives. There were companies from different sectors, some younger than others, and many stayed in contact with us and will continue. They will be able to contact us individually or in groups and we will continue this work».
After this tour of the region, Vítor Neto was convinced that «there is innovation in Algarve companies, but there is a lot of work to help them discover ways to innovate in their business. Oftentimes, there may not be knowledge, or sensitivity to this, and our role is to arouse the curiosity of companies in themselves».
The level of innovation of a company can be translated into a classification, after filling out a questionnaire. here. When there is enough company data, the innovation barometer for companies in the Algarve will be released. In this, it will be possible, for example, to compare the level of innovation of companies with others in the same sector.
Vitor Neto considers that «this barometer, in which we ask companies for a self-assessment of their degree of innovation, is a way to stimulate curiosity to do new things».
The awareness actions have ended, but the work of Inova Algarve will continue until 2018. In addition to the availability of data from the barometer, in September there will be workshops for companies and the objective is that, at the end of the project, at least 40 entrepreneurs submit applications for community funds within six months.
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