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CEI - ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION CENTRE
The basis of any healthy, globalised and competitive economy
Entrepreneurship is defined as any attempt to create a new business or a new initiative, involving the creation of one's own job, a new business organisation or the expansion of an existing business.
The advantages for the economy leave no room for doubt: the creation of new companies with a return in employment and tax contributions to the state, greater investment, the promotion of competitiveness and an improved capacity to take risks, boosting a country's creativity and innovation.
Educating for entrepreneurship is one of the priorities, recognised by the European Union, for all member states, which must create a true European entrepreneurial culture.
The Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, created by the Cooperativa de Ensino Universitário, is the oldest private university in the country, with vast experience in the higher education market.
Aware of this reality, in 2016 it began collaborating with Betweien - Challenge and Success Lda, spin-off from the University of Minho, which has been working for more than 12 years on the development of educational, social and environmental projects in Portugal
and Spain, to boost entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the country's economic fabric.
The interest in expanding this cooperation led to the recent creation of the CEI - Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Autonomous University of Lisbon.
The CEI will use all the resources and competences based at UAL and Betweien in order to:
- Promote and publicise innovation and entrepreneurship in all areas of the economy;
- Training for entrepreneurship;
- Developing innovative projects;
- Supporting the organisation of innovative ecosystems within companies;
- Supporting the creation and acceleration of start-ups;
- Spreading the innovative culture within educational institutions.
The CEI is available for the design and implementation of projects promoted by public and private organisations, whether or not they are financed by European funds, and is available to accompany funding bodies and prepare their applications.