“Ideias in Box” had 15 winners, but CRIA wants to give prizes to many more

Officially, there is a pool of winners, one of whom is entitled to a cash prize. But it wasn't just these 15 projects that won the last edition of “Ideias em Caixa”, they were “many more”. In order not to leave any entrepreneur behind, CRIA – Division of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer of the University of Algarve is creating the conditions for the prizes of the competition that it organizes to reach all the ideas that have legs to go.

"We had a lot of good ideas, not only the awarded ones, but also among the honorable mentions, and we are trying to create the structure and initiatives that allow them to support everyone in a similar way, because they are all valid", revealed the director of CRIA Hugo Barros .

The person responsible for this division at UAlg was in conversation with the Sul Informação and with Rádio Universitária do Algarve RUA FM (102.7 FM), accompanied by Natacha Parreira, co-promoter of the Pluralo project, which won the €5 grand prize of “Ideias em Caixa 2016”, whose winners were announced weeks ago.

The two guests of the radio program “Impressions” spoke about this fifth edition of the competition, but also about the future, which is now undergoing a lot of work, to turn ideas into business initiatives.

CRIA and its various partners in this initiative will work together with the promoters of the ideas, so that they can gain legs and walk. Being one of the winners entitles you to support in the preparation of a business plan, accounting, web design, website hosting, business incubation and coaching, prizes that the competition organizers intend to extend to more projects.

As Hugo Barros insisted, in a competition like Ideias em Caixa, all those who make it to the finals end up winning. “We have a lot more than 15 winners. The vision behind the ideas competition is to promote entrepreneurship and identify entrepreneurial ideas in the region. The jury does not have the arrogance of wanting to determine what the market will ask for in a year or two. What we try to do is find ideas and entrepreneurs and help in the development of projects», he stressed.

“There are many projects that we believe will be successful that are not among the awardees, which may have received honorable mentions. We have here a group of 30 or 40 projects, promoted by capable and very experienced people, and we will try to respond to all of them», guaranteed the director of CRIA.

The Pluralo project, the big winner of this competition, will also have this help, which will be added to the 5 euros prize it has already collected. An important support, in the view of Natacha Parreira, that will allow the project's promoters to invest in the commercial area and in publicity.

"During the Entrepreneur's Week [when the projects are matured, before the final decision], there was a time there when we heard a lot about marketing and sales. And there was a phrase that stuck to me, which was something like: 90% should be for Marketing and Sales and only the rest for product development. Certainly the money will be applied in this area», he said.

At this stage, as Natacha Heck had already advanced to Sul Informação moments after the Pluralo project was announced as the big winner of “Ideias em Caixa 2016”, a Beta version of the platform is already online, which already includes some tourist animation companies.

This proposal to create a collaborative platform between tourism entertainment agents was just one of those that caught the attention of the jury, which is already in a sufficiently high state of maturity to belong to the 15 winners' lot. In this case, it is a project linked to Tourism, but there were good ideas in several areas.

«Within the agri-food sector, we have projects such as distribution platforms, catering, valorization of indigenous products. In the Cultural and Creative Industries we have projects in the areas of design, communication, clothing and aimed at education. In the area of ​​Health, we have proposals in the rehabilitation sector and projects that bridge the gap with tourism. We also have projects linked to low-density areas, in the area of ​​tourism», summarized Hugo Barros.

With regard to concrete ideas, there are proposals such as «production and sale of vegetables, hydroponics, modular wooden furniture lines, activities adapted to different audiences in the area of ​​scientific literacy, educational centers and aerial survey with drones», among others.

The list (see below) is extensive, bearing in mind that, as noted, you should not only look at the 15 awards, but also at the approximately two dozen honorable mentions. But, in this case as in others, the more the better.

After five editions of “Ideias em Caixa”, it became clear to Hugo Barros that the greatest asset of the contest is the sharing between the different participants. "More than the existence of knowledge, there is a lot of sharing of information and experience, namely by people with vast knowledge in finance, design, communication and logistics, who share good practices, but also identify the bad ones", illustrated Hugo Barros.

This leads to, from the outset, a greater propensity of future entrepreneurs to create networks among themselves, which ended up happening in the different editions of the competition. “It has happened that promoters have come to talk to us to say that they are working with authors of other projects, that they are sharing networks and using the same distributor. And that is, for us, very interesting», he added.

This competition is organized by CRIA da UAlg in partnership with the Business Association of the Algarve Region (NERA), with ANJE Algarve, with Caixa Geral de Depósitos and with the Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, IP (IAPMEI), with support to the disclosure of the Sul Informação and from Rádio Universitária do Algarve (FM Street).

List of winners of “Ideias em Caixa 2016”

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