Instituto Pedro Nunes in the Top 10 Best Incubators in the World
The Instituto Pedro Nunes Incubator (IPN-Incubator) is once again in the top 10 best University Business incubators in the world, the only Portuguese incubator on the list. The ranking, covering the 2021-2022 biennium, was conducted by UBI Global, a Swedish research and consultancy entity, recognised for assessing and bringing together the best incubators worldwide.
Created on the initiative of the University of Coimbra in 1991, IPN maintains and consolidates its position as one of the ten best University Business incubators worldwide, already achieved in previous editions of the ranking, the last of which published in 2019.
The ranking is the result of the UBI World Benchmark Study 2021-2022, a comparative study that selected 109 business incubators and accelerators among 1895 programmes located in 56 countries, mapping the global incubation landscape and showing its technology trends and the impact on the startups’ ecosystem and on economy. The 109 assessed programmes were compared by utilizing 21 key performance indicators (KPIs), such as Economy Enhancement, Talent Retention, Access to Funds, Access to national and international networking, among others.
"Being recognised as one of the 10 best University Business Incubation programmes in the world is of great importance for our entire team, for our University and of course for our entrepreneurs, because they are the real stars and the main people responsible for this. It is indeed an honour to be part of this exclusive community of amazing incubators across the world and to have the opportunity to share experiences and learn from all of them. The very thorough Benchmark made by UBI Global is a very powerful tool to help assess and keep improving our programme every year" says Paulo Santos, Executive Director of IPN-Incubator.
IPN and IPN-Incubator President, João Gabriel Silva, also believes that "the awarding of this distinction once again proves that supporting the development of highly differentiated projects, many of them emerging from knowledge generated at the University of Coimbra, as well as from other local, national and international backgrounds, is a winning strategy, not only for us, but also for the city and region of Coimbra and for the country. It is an honour and a responsibility to see our efforts being consistently recognised in this ranking".
Amílcar Falcão, Rector of the University of Coimbra (UC), claims that "it is a great honour for the UC that its incubator reaches such a high level in the world landscape of incubation programmes, specifically in the category of university incubators, which shows that the knowledge generated at the UC, which the IPN channels into the economic fabric, is of worldwide value."
The IPN Incubator has supported the creation and development of over 400 technology-based companies since 1995. Some of the most prominent technological companies in Portugal have started here, such as FEEDZAI, Critical Software, WIT Software, Crioestaminal, Active Space Technologies or Take the Wind, among many other references of the Portuguese entrepreneurial landscape in the last 25 years.
This level of performance makes the IPN-Incubator a European reference in supporting technological entrepreneurs and has attracted, for instance, the interest of ESA - European Space Agency, which, since 2014, trusts IPN with the management of its incubation and entrepreneurship programme based on space technologies in our country, ESA BIC Portugal.
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English version: Diana Taborda