Adriana Miranda is 38 years old and was born in Cantanhede, Coimbra. With a degree in Management from FEUC and a post-graduate qualification in Financial and Tax Management, she began her career at Deloitte as an Auditor and returned to Coimbra in 2008 as a Senior Accountant at Olympus.

Since 2014, Adriana has been Finance Director and, in parallel, has taken on responsibilities in other areas: Legal, Compliance, Quality, Human Resources, Health & Safety and SAP Project Management. In the last 3 years, she has focused exclusively on the Finance area, and is also European Business Partner for the Olympus group in the repair of medical equipment.

Ajay Bhatia is a partner in the EY Parthenon, Strategy & Transaction practice in San Francisco with a focus on “Transaction to Transformation” initiatives and operational aspects of M&A / Divestitures (Technology, OPS-SCM, integration and separation management).

Prior to joining the firm, Ajay was a Partner with PwC advisory. Earlier, Ajay worked in senior leadership positions at Deloitte, KPMG, Arthur Andersen and Oracle on large-scale transformations and merger integration programs.

Ajay Bhatia is a seasoned executive with more than 27 years of deep operational experience in mergers, acquisitions & divestitures and transformations with a deep focus in the Industrial Manufacturing, TMT and Life Sciences sector(s). He has extensive experience in merger integration, Separation planning and execution, performance improvement, process re-engineering, value creation, cost reduction and technology transformation.

Alexandra Lawson is a Managing Director and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager with J.P. Morgan Wealth Management.

She joined J.P. Morgan Wealth Management in 2023. She was previously a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at First Republic since 2023. Alexandra has previous work experience at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, BNY Mellon, Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers and General Electric Asset Management.

Alexandra Lawson earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Vermont and she is a Chartered Financial Analyst. She has Investment Management Experience since 1999.

Amílcar Falcão is the current Rector of the University of Coimbra. He has a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, a PhD and an Aggregate Degree in Pharmacy from the UC, where he is a Full Professor. He has been Director of the Faculty of Pharmacy, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and Vice-Rector of the UC.

He has an extensive scientific output (more than 230 scientific articles, more than 5000 citations) and extensive experience in supervising research work. He is on the editorial board of several scientific journals, where he is a regular reviewer. He has already received several national and international awards that reinforce the visibility and quality of his work.

Amílcar Falcão is also the Technical Director of the company ICNAS Produção, having actively participated in obtaining the first radiopharmaceutical drug developed and registered in Portugal and the first Portuguese drug to be commercialised.

Ana Carvalho has been Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Banco Português de Fomento since November 2022. Previously, and since 2019, she was Executive Director of COSEC, a market leader in credit and surety insurance, with responsibility for Commercial, Marketing and Communication. During this time she was President of the Chamber of Commerce of Portugal and the Czech Republic.

Ana began her professional career in 1996 in the Large Companies North Department of Banco BPI, where she started an enriching and diversified career. Between 2001 and 2004, she was Project Manager at Inter-Risco, BPI's venture capital company at the time. Between 2005 and 2009 she was Director of the Guimarães Business Centre.

In 2009 she took on the role of Director of Strategic Marketing for Companies, where she had the opportunity to contribute to BPI's growing position as the Bank of Agriculture, Innovation, Tourism and SME Leaders and Excellence.

Ana Carvalho has a degree in Business Administration and Management from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and an MBA from the same institution. She has also attended executive programmes such as INSEAD's Young Managers Programme and Dynargie's Dynamic Management Programme.

André is an Ethical Hacker, Co-Founder and the CTO of Ethiack. He is also a university professor of information security at Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto.

André has been fighting for a safer Internet for 15 years now, having won the title of "Most Valuable Hacker'' (H1-202 MVH) and worked in securing organizations like Shopify, Verizon, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

André is a partner at Indico Capital Partners leading the Blue Economy Impact Fund. He specialises in Responsible Investment and Leadership, with a diverse career spanning more than 20 years in investment.

He served for a decade at the African Development Bank, working for poverty reduction and sustainable development across Africa. André was also a Harvard Kennedy School Fellow for Responsible Investment and a teaching assistant for courses on Impact Investing and Moral Leadership. He also contributes to the Inner Development Goals global initiative.

António Dias Martins is the current Executive Director of Startup Portugal, a non-profit organisation with Public Utility Status, whose mission is to develop activities to promote entrepreneurship, in close liaison with public and private entities that operate in the national entrepreneurship ecosystem.

In the last year, António has been one of the people responsible for promoting national entrepreneurship, closing new partnerships and promoting programmes aimed at supporting and exposing startups on the national and international markets.

António has extensive experience in investment management, venture capital and private equity, management consultancy, having worked in the automotive, property, tourism and construction sectors.

After graduating from Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, António completed an MBA at NOVA School of Business and Economics.

António Grilo is a Full Professor in Industrial Engineering and Management at NOVA School of Science and Technology, and is currently President of Agência Nacional de Inovação, SA (ANI).

He has previously held academic management positions at Universidade Nova de Lisboa as Chairman of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Director of the UNIDEMI research centre, Member of the Board of Directors of NOVA.ID, Director of the PhD Programme in Industrial Engineering, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Incubadora Madan Parque, and Member of the Board of Directors of UNINOVA.

António Lindo da Cunha is the Executive Director of the Automation Laboratory of Instituto Pedro Nunes. He has over twenty years' experience in directing and managing private and social sector organisations. In particular, he has coordinated applied research projects and led technology transfer processes between research organisations and industry in the areas of tele-rehabilitation and telemedicine.

António has a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and a Master's degree in Innovation Management from the University of Aveiro.

Bruno Direito is an Assistant Researcher at the Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra (CISUC), collaborates with the Centre for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT) and is a member of the Associated Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LASI).

His research work centres on cognitive and clinical neuroscience, with a focus on therapeutic strategies based on neuroimaging and computational learning. He has participated in several national and international projects (FP7 EPILEPSIAE, BRAINTRAIN) on these topics.

Bruno collaborates in various open science, research data management and responsible research initiatives. He has ongoing projects on brain-computer interfaces, medical imaging, emotions and music.

Carla Duarte is the Innovation Manager at Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN), where she organises projects and activities to promote entrepreneurship and the space economy, and supports entrepreneurs and start-ups to turn technology and knowledge into business.

She is a member of the ESA Space Solutions Portugal team where she is an ESA Business Applications Ambassador, managing funding mechanisms that allow national companies to integrate space technologies into their commercial solutions, in any sector of activity.

Carla has a degree in Sociology from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra (FEUC) and a postgraduate qualification in Partnership Project Management, also from FEUC.

Carlos Boto is co-founder of BRNDTS, which uses artificial intelligence to display realistic adverts as if they were part of the original video scene. He is an investor and start-up mentor.

Carlos was also co-founder and COO of doDOC Corp., a company focused on real-time controlled collaboration for scientific documents, acquired in 2021 by Envision Pharma Group.

Carlos Cerqueira is a Business Development Director at Neuraspace. Neuraspace aims to solve the problem of Space Debris by providing tools, based on Artificial Intelligence, for satellite operators to avoid collisions, losses due to infrastructure damage and the costs of evasion manoeuvres.

He is the former Director of ESA Space SolutionsPortugal, the European Space Agency's incubation and innovation centre in Portugal, having launched these activities in 2012, and the former Director of Innovation at the Instituto Pedro Nunes. Carlos is a visiting professor of innovation at the University of Coimbra.

Carolina Caffi Rodrigues, Programme Manager at New Space Portugal, has a degree in Civil Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, an Executive Master's in International Business from Porto Business School and an intensive course in Sustainable Business from the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Hungary.

He began his professional career in telecommunications, where he managed several mobile network projects with Ericsson. She joined CEiiA as Operational Manager in the Software Development area and later coordinated the management team of the Ocean & Space Unit.

Carolina currently plays a key role in New Space Portugal, contributing significantly to the daily success of this project.

After spending a little over a decade with a prominent law firm in Vancouver, primarily advising technology companies, research organizations, and corporate boards, Chrispher Lennon joined Empowered Startups Ltd. as President and General Counsel.

Prior to taking on this role, Chrispher had acted as Empowered’s primary legal counsel since the organization’s inception, and he also acted as an advisor on strategic issues and specific ventures incubated with the organization.

As President and General Counsel Chris now oversees all Empowered’s operations and legal matters, working closely with the business incubator’s Board of Directors.

Cristiana Ribeiro has a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.

She was awarded a research grant in the field of waste recovery at LEPABE - Laboratório de Engenharia de Processos, Ambiente, Biotecnologia e Energia (Process, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy Engineering Laboratory) and did a professional internship at E-Redes in the Environment and Safety area. She has a postgraduate qualification in Integrated Quality, Environment and Safety Systems from the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto.

In June 2020, she started working at the Smart Waste Portugal Association, where she is Project Manager.

Fábio Fiúza Rosa holds a double PhD degree in biomedicine from Lund University (Sweden) and Coimbra University (Portugal).

Fabio pioneered the use of cell reprogramming to induce dendritic cell fate in unrelated cell types. He co-founded Asgard Therapeutics, a company that has secured over 36 million euros in funding, to bring cell reprogramming-based innovations from bench to bedside.

He filed 5 patent applications and received >15 different scientific/entrepreneurship awards. Fabio serves as Head of Research at Asgard Therapeutics where he leads R&D activities and matures reprogramming technologies for cancer immunotherapy.

Ferenc Pongracz, Deputy Managing Director of EIT Health InnoStars, has a storied career in international business leadership, including roles at IBM and Tungsram Group.

He is a former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary and he has been involved in the work of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office in different expert and leadership roles in the past decade.

His academic pursuits include lecturing at Corvinus University of Budapest, enhancing his profound knowledge in regional economics, which he holds a PhD in regional economics.

Filipa Dias Mendes, Host of the #SCS24 Morning Conference, is a politics journalist at RTP, where she has worked for ten years.

She is interested in European politics and has worked in Brussels at the Council of the European Union.

Heitor Benfeito es uno de los gestores de Critical Ventures y cuenta con más de 20 años de experiencia en capital riesgo y gestión de empresas en Portugal, Estados Unidos, Reino Unido y Alemania, actuando a menudo como CEO y CFO interino. Su experiencia abarca temas como innovación, ventas, captación de fondos, expansión internacional, gestión de crisis, finanzas, negociación y gestión de equipos multilocalizados.

En la actualidad, Heitor imparte clases de finanzas y comercialización de alta tecnología en varias universidades de Portugal, es consultor independiente de la Comisión Europea en materia de innovación y nuevas tecnologías y es ponente habitual en foros internacionales sobre capital riesgo, innovación y nuevas tecnologías. Además, Heitor es políglota (con distintos niveles de competencia) y habla portugués, español, italiano, inglés, alemán, mandarín y ruso.

With over 20 years' experience in business development, marketing and communication, Helena Taveira is passionate about solving real problems: "What drives her are people, relationships that result in partnerships and strategies that create synergies."

Helenn began her professional career in Communications and Advertising, spent more than 10 years in fundraising and business development roles at one of the country's most prestigious cultural institutions and, in 2017, had her first contact with venture capital, entrepreneurship and innovation when she took on the role of Marketing & Communications Director at Portugal Ventures.

Helena now oversees a portfolio of 17 early-stage technology start-ups, supporting their teams in business growth and the funding process. Her support for entrepreneurs extends to the national entrepreneurship ecosystem, as a Non-Executive Board Member at Startup Portugal.

Henrique Rézio has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from FCTUC and a post-graduate qualification in Management from Católica Porto Business School. He has been working in the automotive industry for 20 years.

Among other positions, he was Project Manager for the Asian and European markets at the French multinational AKWEL. He returned to Portugal in 2011 to join SOPLAST as Business Director, and in 2014 was appointed CEO of the company, a position he currently holds.

Henrique is also Co-Founder and CEO of UINCS, a start-up focussed on the mobility sector, created with the aim of developing an elastic printed electronics technology based at the University of Coimbra.

Hugo Marques is recognised as an influential leader in the healthcare sector, dedicated to enhancing the humanisation and efficiency of healthcare through digital innovation. He currently leads the Digital & Automation area at Siemens Healthineers Portugal, where he drives the integration of new technological skills and humanisation at the heart of innovation.

With a career spanning more than 15 years at the forefront of managing and implementing digital health solutions and clinical decision support (AI), she is passionate about using medical technology to improve people's quality of life. Its mission is to prepare healthcare professionals for the future by guaranteeing a commitment to a patient-centred vision that is both empathetic and innovative.

Inês Rocha de Gouveia is passionate to contribute for a better and sustainable world, supporting actions towards a more inclusive and innovative education, programs for employability and entrepreneurship.

She still is Wife, Mother, warm Friend and Accomplished Senior Executive with over 20 years of international experience in Banking, Telco’s and Consumer Goods.

Jatyr Ranzolin Júnior has been working in the field of Intellectual Property for over 25 years. He has a Master's degree in Intellectual Property, Innovation and Technology Transfer from UFSC, a postgraduate degree in Intellectual Property and specialises in Law and Economics for Business.

He is a lawyer and managing partner of RANZOLIN PROPRIEDADE INTELECTUAL, a member of the Intellectual Property Commission at OABSC (Brazilian Bar Association Santa Catarina) and President of the Brazil-Portugal Chamber of Commerce of Santa Catarina.

Jatyr is also a Mentor and Lecturer on technological prospecting and intellectual property, a Professor on the Specialisation Course for Intellectual Property Experts at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS and a Member of the Board of CECOP-SC (Santa Catarina State Council for Combating Piracy).

Joana Branco, who has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, is currently Director of Innovation and Ecosystem Development at Biocant Park, SA. She is also a board member of P-Bio, the Portuguese Association of Bioindustries, and a board member of the Accelbio Collaborative Laboratory. She has 18 years' experience in biotechnology, first as an entrepreneur and then as Director of Innovation at Biocant Park.

In recent years, Joana has been responsible for projects in the areas of internationalisation, entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer, as well as supporting entrepreneurs in defining business plans and raising finance. She is also responsible for identifying new business areas, funding opportunities and partnerships, as well as representing the park in national and international consortia.

Founder of Exogenus Therapeutics, Joana Simões Correia is an international reference leader in the field of biological drug development, specifically in therapeutic applications of Extracellular Vesicles. With a PhD in Human Biology, Joana has dedicated 20 years to health research.

The winner of several entrepreneurship awards, she has raised and invested more than €5M in R&D, successfully transforming the scientific results of Exogenus Therapeutics into products for human health and leading commercial negotiations with various companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Joana is also an inventor on more than 10 patents and the author of several publications in high-impact journals. She is an enthusiastic entrepreneur and activist, with a creative mind and a strong desire to find solutions to major health challenges and other problems facing our society today.

João Bernardo Parreira is a "coimbrinha at heart", 26 years old and a "slightly crooked" law student. He is the co-founder of Book in Loop and The Loop Co.

João Ribeiro is currently "Lead Open Innovation Manager" in Galp's Innovation team. With more than 100 million euros in projects under management, the innovation team's mission is to accelerate the energy transition in collaboration with various innovation ecosystems (e.g. startups, academia).

João leads the team responsible for liaising with the academic ecosystem, working on science, applied projects and future skills. He is also a professor of innovation at the University of Bergen in Norway, and a guest professor of innovation strategy and culture at Porto Business School.

João Gabriel Silva has been president of the Instituto Pedro Nunes since April 2022. A full professor at the University of Coimbra, he was also Rector of this institution between 2011 and 2019. He holds a PhD in Engineering Sciences, specialising in Computer Science, from the FCTUC. In the course of his scientific research activity, he has developed projects funded by organisations such as JNICT, FCT, EU, Innovation Agency, European Space Agency and NASA.

He was one of the founders of the UC Centre for Information Technology and Systems - CISUC, of which he was president from 2002 to 2006. He led the Research Group on Dependable Systems (1991-2005), and was Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the most important conference in his area of research: IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (June 2003, San Francisco).

He coordinated the design of the first Portuguese computer, designed and produced in Portugal, the ENER 1000. Subsequently, João coordinated various projects developed at the IPN's Computer Science and Systems Laboratory and the development of software packages that gained international visibility, such as WPVM and WMPI.

Jorge Figueira has a degree in Chemical Engineering and a postgraduate qualification in Business Sciences from the UC. He was Coordinator of the Technology Transfer Office at the University of Coimbra from 2003 to 2019 (coordinator of the Innovation Ecosystem; pipeline management; interface for innovation and knowledge transfer issues; commercial development of R&D results; licensing of the IP portfolio).

Involved in various activities and positions at EITHealth and Innostars since 2016, namely Member of the Supervisory Board of EITHealth and Chairman of Innostars, Jorge is currently the Coordinator of the R&D International Networks Office of the University of Coimbra, since 2020.

Jorge is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ethiack. He holds a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Post-Grad in Business Management.

Jorge has a track record of business ventures, he's also a researcher at C-MAST (Center for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies) and a board cybersecurity advisor for CIONET Portugal.

Basílio Simões, an entrepreneur and business angel with over 30 years' experience, is co-founder of Cleanwatts, a company specialising in Energy Communities. He previously founded and invested in several technology companies, including ISA Intelligent Sensing Anywhere, VPS - Virtual Power Solutions and Energia Simples.

With a degree in Engineering Physics and a PhD in Technological Physics, Basílio was a professor at the University of Coimbra for over 25 years. His hobby is athletics and he is currently running the 6 World Marathon Majors.

José Manuel da Silva passed the Management of Health Units course at the Catholic University with Distinction. In 1998 he took his doctoral exams in Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, where his thesis, "Lipid Dysmetabolism and Atherosclerosis" was approved with Distinction and Praise.

He was President of the Centre Regional Section of the Portuguese Medical Association (2005-2007 and 2008-2010) and President of the Portuguese Medical Association (2011-2013 and 2014-2016). Since October 2021, José Manuel da Silva has been the Mayor of Coimbra.

Karl Strømsem holds an MSc&PhD from the NTNU in Trondheim Norway/Institute Francais du Petrole (IFP) in Paris, on marine hydrodynamics and structures.

Specialist on slender structures in an offshore environment. Worked than 30 years with marine related design in O&G. From 2003 focused on offshore renewables and aquaculture and had 2 years in the Norwegian Government as dep. man. for innovation and export for energy and clean technology projects.

Experienced project manager including complex R&D projects and reviewer for the EU Commission, Karl funded several companies, worked with investors and are presently developing an open ocean aquaculture project in Portugal.

Lino Silva Ferreira is the founder of the Colab4Ageing Collaborative Laboratory (in the field of ageing), which currently has 11 members, the founder of two technology-based companies and a board member of the largest biomedicine research unit in the Centre Region, called the Centre for Innovation in Biomedicine and Biotechnology (Centro de Inovação em Biomedicina e Biotecnologia | CIBB).

Lino Ferreira is also a Coordinating Researcher (equivalent to Full Professor) at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra and holds a chair in the area of ageing at the University of Coimbra.

Lurdes Gramaxo is a partner and member of the Executive Committee of Bynd Venture Capital, a venture capital company that manages two Early Stage funds, FCR Leading Ventures and FCR BA Venture Fund. She is currently President of the Portuguese Association of Early Stage Investors - INVESTORS PORTUGAL.

Lurdes has more than 8 years' experience in venture capital investments in the pre-seed, seed and early stage phases. In 2020 she was awarded Europe's Female Investor of the Year by BAND- Business Angels Netzwerk Deutschland.

Previously, Lurdes had more than 20 years' experience in the corporate world, where she held various management positions in a multinational group based in the Netherlands, Royal Lankhorst Euronete Group, BV, which she left after a successful exit to an international private equity firm.

Manuel Queiroz Ribeiro has been the Corporate and Sustainability Director of Banco Português de Fomento since August 2023, responsible for ascertaining and listening to market failures, institutional relations and representation, strategic positioning and proposals, and developing and monitoring sustainability.

Previously, he was a lawyer at Uría Menéndez - Proença de Carvalho, focussing primarily on corporate and tax law (2014 to 2018) and, subsequently, assistant to the Minister of State for the Economy and Digital Transition, where he carried out various legal, economic, political and diplomatic tasks (2018 to 2022).

Manuel has a law degree from the Portuguese Catholic University and has attended postgraduate courses in various areas at the most reputable law schools, particularly in the areas of Taxation and Corporate Finance. He has published articles in specialised journals in the areas of Sustainability, Competition Law and Political Science, and participates as a speaker at conferences and seminars of various kinds.

Manuel Santos is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra in the field of molecular biology, with an interest in the biology of ageing, in particular the molecular mechanisms of ageing. He is also the Scientific Director of MIA-Portugal.

He has already completed half a century, more than half studying to be a researcher in the field of polymers as biomaterials, a quarter working in the R&D department of Bluepharma, and the last 7 years have been dedicated to his vocation as an entrepreneur in the health sector.

Marcos Mariz is currently CEO and Co-Founder of two spin-offs from the University of Coimbra: INEYE PHARMA and TIMEUP. He loves challenges and always questions the status quo with the intention of looking for alternatives - he even has an idea for a new wheel!

Maria Manuel Leitão Marques has a degree in Law and a PhD and aggregate degree in Economics from the University of Coimbra (UC). She is a retired full professor at the UC Faculty of Economics and a permanent researcher at the Centro de Estudos Sociais of UC. She was vice-president of the Association Internationale de Droit Economique and is the author and co-author of various books and articles on Public Regulation, Competition Law and Public Services.

She was Secretary of State for Administrative Modernisation between 2011 and 2017. Between 2015 and 2019, she was a Member of Parliament and Minister for the Presidency and Administrative Modernisation in the 21st Constitutional Government.

Maria Manuel Leitão Marques was a member of the High Level Group on Administrative Burdens (European Commission) between 2013-2014; and, in 2002, she was an Expert for the European Commission to draw up a Report on Higher Education in Angola and Mozambique.

In 2019 she was elected to the European Parliament for the 9th parliamentary term (2019-2024), where she is vice-chair of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. She focuses her work on digital, science and innovation, consumer protection and product safety, and gender equality. She is a member of the Delegation to the ACP-EU and Euro-Latin American Joint Parliamentary Assembly, where she is coordinator for the Socialists and Democrats Group.

Marta Passadouro has a PhD in Biochemical Technology from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra. She has worked with the UC's Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Division and supervised various entrepreneurship programmes. She was part of the pioneering Innovation@UC initiative to promote knowledge transfer and collaboration in R&TD with companies.

As Science Manager at the UC, Marta was responsible for managing the Strategic Health Area, coordinated the global health consortium, CoimbraHealth, and supported the activities funded under EIT Health. She later took on the role of advisor to the rectorate's research team.

She is currently the EIT Health Innostars Ecosystem Lead Portugal, where she coordinates the national ecosystem of partners in this network and health start-ups, catalyses the competitiveness of this innovative community and fosters the internationalisation of health sector projects for European markets.

Miguel Alves joined the European Investment Fund in 2014 and is the manager responsible for monitoring the Portuguese market.

In recent years, Miguel has led the negotiation of several venture capital partnerships with the Portuguese government and the Banco Português de Fomento (BPF). The Portugal Tech, Portugal Growth, Portugal Blue and Portugal Venture Capital Initiative (PVCi) programmes together represent more than 500 million euros of investment in around 300 Portuguese start-ups and SMEs.

Miguel Magalhães is responsible for The Next Big Idea's content projects and partnerships, in digital and television. He is one of the authors of the Next newsletter, sent out every Monday with the main stories from the world of innovation and business, and one of the authors of "Next Round on Me", a weekly guide to the main rounds of investment in startups around the world.

Paulo Barradas Rebelo has a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, a postgraduate qualification from Universidade Católica and has completed an advanced course in M&As and Corporate Strategy at INSEAD. As a manager he has developed/participated in multiple projects in the industrial, agricultural, tourism and commercial areas, most notably the Bluepharma Group, where he has been a leading shareholder, director and CEO for 23 years.

He was also Technical Director at the Baeta Rebelo and Estádio pharmacies, Chairman of the Farbeira Distribution Cooperative and a member of the governing bodies of the Order of Pharmacists and the National Association of Pharmacies. Paulo Barradas Rebelo is currently Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Bissaya Barreto Foundation and also Chairman of the Coimbra ACEGE Centre and a member of the CDJP.

Paulo Dimas is the Vice President of Innovation at Unbabel - an Artificial Intelligence startup with a mission to eliminate language barriers.

Paulo is also the CEO of the Centre for Responsible AI, a consortium of AI startups, research centres and industry leaders with the mission of creating the next generation of AI products based on the principles and technologies of Responsible AI.

With a degree in Tourism Business Management from the Estoril School of Hospitality and Tourism, Pedro Mello Breyner completed the Digital Marketing Management and Tourism Management programmes at the Catholic University. He was Head of the Multidisciplinary Team for Specialised Support to Companies at Turismo de Portugal, Director of Turismo de Portugal for Benelux and President of the Association of National Tourist Offices in the Netherlands.

Pedro Mello Breyner is the coordinator of sponsorship for international events and operations for Portugal's international tourism promotion. He was Golf Product Manager and a member of the Joint Promotion Plan Management Committees. He is a lecturer at the Estoril School of Hospitality and Tourism and an executive member of Portugal Ventures.

Pedro Ribeiro Santos has a degree in Engineering Physics from Instituto Superior Técnico, started his career as a PhD Researcher at Oxford University and has an MBA and a Masters in Economics from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

He joined Armilar in 2009 where he actively participates in the development of several portfolio companies, as well as in fundraising and management activities. Before joining Armilar, Pedro worked for more than 12 years in strategic and management consultancy (Accenture, BCG), and also had experience as Systems Director in large companies.

Pedro Silveira has been part of AICEP's commercial team since 2004. First in the area of attracting foreign investment to Portugal and then in the team that follows Portuguese companies in their internationalisation strategies.

He is currently Key Account Manager for companis in the ICT area and responsible for the startup ecosystem at AICEP Portugal Global.

Pedro is the father of two twin boys and a keen sportsman (running, football, etc.). As an amateur photographer, he loves landscape photography. He lives in Porto and studied at the University of Minho in Braga.

With a PhD in Business Management from the University of Coimbra and an MBA from Católica-Lisbon, Pedro Torres is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra (FEUC).

Pedro is a full member of CeBER (Centre for Research in Economics and Management), a member of FEUC's Scientific Council, coordinator of the MBA for Executives and President of APEU (Association for University Extension at FEUC).

He is also one of the coordinators of the MetaRedX Portugal entrepreneurship ecosystems working group. Pedro previously worked in corporate banking and was a business manager.

Rita Piçarra retired at the age of 44 after achieving financial independence, ending a career that spanned more than two decades. During that time, she held various leadership roles in renowned companies, including Microsoft and Deloitte. Notable among these positions was her role as CFO at Microsoft Portugal, which had always been her dream.

Her career has taken her to live and work in various countries, including Spain, Brazil, France, the United States and, of course, Portugal. In 2016, Rita Piçarra was recognised as the best financial manager in Microsoft Latin America, winning several other awards throughout her professional career.

In addition to her achievements in the corporate world, Rita Piçarra is passionate about the sea and travelling. Nowadays, she devotes her time to her family, friends and her favourite hobbies, such as surfing and skateboarding.

Rui Lourenço Pereira has a degree in Economics and Management and a master's degree in International Development and Cooperation. Since 2024, he has been Deputy Director of AICEP's Commercial Directorate and, since 2023, AICEP Delegate in Santiago de Chile and Economic Counsellor at the Portuguese Embassy in Santiago de Chile and Lima.

From 2017 to 2020, Rui was AICEP Delegate in Buenos Aires and Economic Counsellor at the Portuguese Embassy in Buenos Aires and Montevideo; from 2012 to 2016 he was a Senior Technician at the Directorate-General for European Affairs (Directorate of Common Commercial Policy Services) - Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and since 1997, he has been a Senior Technician at ICEP/AICEP.

Rui Sales is the President and Co-founder of Stratio. Fascinated by machines and computers from an early age, he learnt to program and studied computer science at the University of Coimbra. The same love of business led him to graduate in Management from the University of Coimbra and create Stratio.

Stratio enables transport operators to eliminate breakdowns and forced downtime so that they can serve more people, better. By eliminating vehicle breakdowns, Stratio's predictive maintenance technology, which takes advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to predict failures before they occur, makes transport more efficient, sustainable and accessible for everyone.

Rute Sousa Vasco is a journalist and publisher at MadreMedia. She began her career as a journalist at the Público newspaper, was editor of Exame magazine, director of Ganhar magazine at Jornal de Negócios and content director of the SAPO portal.

She is co-author and producer of the programme "The Next Big Idea", which has aired on SIC Notícias since 2012. Rute has written two books, "A sorte dá muito trabalho" (2012) and "Banco bom, banco mau" (2014).

Sofia Viana is a pharmacologist and CEO of RDefine, a spin-off company that develops products and services in the field of non-clinical testing involving animal experimentation. She is also the inventor of HaPILLness technology, which redefines the oral dosing of test substances to animals through non-invasive solutions.

Sofia, who has a PhD in Health Sciences, Biomedical Sciences (FMUC), is an integrated researcher at the Clinical and Biomedical Research Institute of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra (iCBR-FMUC) and a lecturer at the School of Health Technology of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (ESTeSC-IPC).

Teresa Fernandes is the Director of AICEP In San Francisco, where she is responsible to attract foreign investment from California and the West Coast of the US to Portugal, as well as, to support the Portuguese Companies that want to tap into that region. Before moving to San Francisco, she set up the corporate accelerator of Farfetch. Previously, she was Executive board member at Portugal Ventures.

Teresa has more than 20 years of experience in business innovation and growth, has invested in more than 40 SaaS startups. She is also a startup mentor in several programs.

Tiago Rebelo has a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Beira Interior, a Master's in Space Technology from Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and a Master's in Astronautics and Space Engineering from Cranfield University in the UK.

With extensive professional experience in the aerospace sector, Tiago was director of the Ocean & Space Unit at CEiiA - Centre for Engineering and Product Development, and later CTO of the company GEOSAT. Since 2023, Tiago has been one of the co-founders and CEO of Connected, a startup in the space sector dedicated to developing IoT connectivity solutions via satellite.

Tomás Caeiro is CEO, Founder and Head of Programs of startUP23 - a start-up accelerator that runs various entrepreneurship and innovation programmes. He is also CEO and Founder of Start Your Future, an academy for young people to learn about Leadership, Communication, Entrepreneurship and Personal Finance, and IMOtalks.

Tomás is an entrepreneur with more than 10 digital products launched, and has obtained investment from Business Angels that has valued his company at more than $1M. He has participated in several ideation and acceleration programmes (as an entrepreneur and later as a trainer), and has worked with more than 1,000 entrepreneurs and helped more than 500 startups.

A guest lecturer at the European University and a national and international speaker at various entrepreneurship events, Tomás works with Business Angels and VCs, scouting and preparing start-ups.

Vera Moura has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Coimbra. She is an award-winning scientist who discovered and patented the technology that led to the creation of TREAT U - a start-up dedicated to developing personalised treatments for cancer patients - of which she was CEO.

Vera is the co-author of 4 patents granted in the US and the EU, as well as articles in scientifically-reviewed journals. She was Health Ecosystem Manager and Innovation Manager at EIT Health before joining the FHC group as Director of Basinnov Life Sciences.