Post by Birgit Stelzer

What Europe can learn from its own innovation ecosystems 🇪🇺🇵🇹 Europe has remarkable innovation ecosystems: strong in science and technology. I think, our next competitive advantage lies in learning much more intentionally from each other how to translate these strengths into innovation and regional value creation. End of June, I had the privilege of visiting INESC TEC , CCDR NORTE, I.P., UPTEC - Science and Technology Park of University of Porto and PRODUTECH in Porto—thanks to the generosity and curiosity of José Carlos Caldeira, who connected me with an extraordinary community of people. 🙏 ✨ Some journeys give you answers. This one gave me a question I couldn't stop thinking about: How do we help people make better decisions before a business case exists? 💡 Looking back, I suddenly understood something about my own work. The programmes are not the point. They are simply different ways of helping people navigate uncertainty. I design learning experiences for different target groups: 🧪 Researchers 🏭 SMEs 🌍 Regional innovation ecosystems 🎻 Leaders. Different audiences. Different formats. One mission. Helping people discover opportunities and make better decisions before certainty exists. 🔬 INESC TEC showed how research, applied R&D and industry can be connected much more closely. José Carlos CaldeiraLia PatrícioJosé Fernando Oliveira 🌍 CCDR NORTE, I.P.-NORTE showed how smart specialisation can become a structured regional discovery process — not just a strategy paper. Raquel Meira 🚀 UPTEC - Science and Technology Park of University of Porto showed how researchers and startups can be supported in finding the right problem before scaling the solution. Raphael Stanzani 🏭 PRODUTECH showed how SMEs and technology providers can work together around concrete industrial challenges. Pedro Rocha ❤️ Thank you, José, for opening so many doors. This journey has only just begun. #InnovationEcosystems #ScienceBasedEntrepreneurship #ManagingUncertainty #EntrepreneurialLearning #Europe