‘Entrepreneurship is the relentless pursuit of opportunities beyond available resources.’ Peter Drucker

The E.Awards@Técnico aims to reward innovation and entrepreneurship projects conceived by Técnico students enrolled in Entrepreneurship and Innovation curricular units, regardless of the cycle of studies, with the aim of encouraging, recognising and publicising entrepreneurial and innovative ideas and projects formulated by the Técnico community.

Target:

1. 1. All Técnico students enrolled in an Entrepreneurship, Product Development and Innovation course in the 2024-2025 academic year are eligible.

2. Teams of Técnico students enrolled in a course in the 2024-2025 academic year, whose subject is entrepreneurship, product development and innovation, may also apply for this edition, at the proposal of the teacher responsible for the course. Teams whose project has been developed in the context of the dissertation course are excluded.

Awards:

In this edition, the best entrepreneurship projects selected by the jury will be awarded the following prizes:

• Best E.Project by Santander – 1 award of 3.500€;
• Honorable Mention by by Accenture – 1 award of 1000€;
• Honorable Mention by Armilar Ventures – 1 award of 1000€;
• Best Poster by Accenture – 2 awards of 500€ each;

Candidaturas

Applications for the E.Awards@Técnico are open until 3 June 2025 using this Application form  

(https://ist.pt/EAwards2024-2025)

• The professors of the curricular units select the projects with the greatest potential from among those developed and invite candidates to fill in an application form made available for this purpose, identifying the project developed within the scope of the respective curricular unit, and all members of the project team must be identified;
• There may be applications from teams that have not been pre-selected by the teacher in charge of the course, and the team’s prior discussion with the teacher in charge is relevant to the acceptance of the application;
• All applications received will be validated by the teachers responsible for the Curricular Units identified in the notice;
• Only projects developed and assessed within the scope of the Curricular Units identified in Article II of this notice will be accepted in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Selection process for the Best E.Project and Honorable Mentions awards

1. 1. The competition jury will select up to six (6) projects for the Final Pitch, based on the problem the team proposes to solve, taking into account the following criteria:

• Technology and degree of innovation;
• Potential social and/or environmental impact;
• Technical viability and feasibility of the project;
• Competence and suitability of the team;
• Validation and potential of the business model.

1. 2. The teams of the six (6) projects selected for the Final Pitch will have to make a public presentation of their project in a 3-minute pitch to the jury that will select the three (3) winning projects, to be presented on the day of the Final Pitch.
   
3. 3. The jury will evaluate each of the six (6) projects selected for the Final Pitch, based on the 3-minute pitch and the way the team answers the questions posed, taking into account the following criteria:
   • Business model: validation by clients, revenue model, partnerships, client acquisition, market and the like;
   • Potential social and environmental impact;
   • Technology: feasibility, complexity, quality of the prototype, etc;
   • Presentation and clarity in describing the project: quality and effectiveness of the speaker and slides, graphic quality (prototype and website, among other acceptable supports).
   • Technology and degree of innovation;

Selection process for Best Poster awards

1. 1. All candidate projects, regardless of whether or not they are selected for the Final Pitch, will be eligible to compete for the ‘Best Poster by Accenture’ awards.
2. 2. Each team must prepare a poster about their project and present it in a 1-minute pitch to the jury who will select the two (2) winning projects.
3. 3. The jury will evaluate the posters based on the following criteria:

• Technology and degree of innovation;
• Creativity;
• Potential for impact;
• Clarity of presentation and visual impact.

1. VERY IMPORTANT: Candidate project teams must ensure that at least one team member is present on the day of the final event to present their poster. If all team members are absent, the project will not be considered for an award.

Jury Panel

The jury will be composed by five members:

• one member appointed by Santander Universities;
• one member appointed by Accenture Consultores de Gestão S.A;
• one member appointed by Armilar Venture Partners;
• one IST professor with a link to entrepreneurship who will be the president of the jury;
• one external guest with an outstanding track record in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Applications and Deadlines:

• Submission of applications: 11 October 2024 to 3 June 2025 – HERE
• Communication of the projects selected for the final pitch: by 6 June 2025  – HERE
• 18 June 2025: date of the public session for the presentation of pitches and posters by the teams of the selected projects, followed by a period of questions from the jury, with the winners announced at the end of the session.

Documents

Available in the Portuguese version

 

Tech Transfer Team
Additional information contact us at:  tt@tecnico.ulisboa.pt