Braga Economy Weeks took place from 4 to 29 May, centred at Forum Braga, featuring 200 hours of events and several thousand participants. The initiative by InvestBraga and Braga City Council has the theme “A New Cycle for Economic Development” and dedicates each week to a specific topic: economic development; finance and investment; innovation and science; and the region.
The programme included conferences, summits, workshops, exhibitions and networking events, combining activities open to the public with others of a technical and strategic nature. As in previous editions, UMinho and EEUM were partners and featured at various points.
Highlights of the programme included the opening conference, “A New Cycle for Economic Development”, featuring the director of Banco Português de Fomento and themed talks (4th, 2.00 pm), the presentation of I2C – Investment and Innovation in Cávado by the consortium comprising the Intermunicipal Community of Cávado, InvestBraga and TecMinho (7th, 9.00 am), the 12th anniversary of Startup Braga (7th, 4.30 pm) and the session “Braga’s Territorial Development Strategy” (15th, 10.00 am).
Also on the programme are the INOVARMY Summit & Expo 2026 on defence innovation (19th and 20th), the conference “A New Cycle for Innovation and Science” (22nd, 2.30 pm), the Industry Summit with Prime Minister Luís Montenegro at Theatro Circo (26th), and the Qualifica-te Braga’26 Business Exhibition and Training and Employment Fair, featuring 120 exhibitor stands, including UMinho and EEUM (28th and 29th).
The programme also featured initiatives from partners such as dstgroup at the “Collaborative Housing” conference (14th, 9.30 am), Built CoLab and the Casais group at the “Sustainable Construction” conference (15th, 2.30 pm), the Fibrenamics interface at the “Impulse – Defence and Protection” (21st, 2.00 pm) and the CCG/ZGDV interface at the conference “AI and HPC as Drivers of Regional Competitiveness” (22nd, 9.00 am).
Also held on 4 May, on an invitation-only basis, was the Braga Business Ambassadors’ Summit (40 leaders linked to over 350 companies with 27,500 employees and a turnover of more than €5 billion, mainly from exports) and the meeting of the InvestBraga Strategic Council, which brought together entities such as IAPMEI, AICEP, IEFP, UMinho, IPCA, UCatólica, AEMinho and AEBraga). On 22 May, a meeting of the Northern Regional Innovation Council took place.
PROGRAMME (highlights from UMinho)
4 May, 2.00 pm | Conference: “A New Cycle for Economic Development”, featuring speakers including José Machado (lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the UMinho School of Engineering)
7 May, 9.00 am | Presentation of I2C – Investment and Innovation in Cávado, with speakers including Raul Fangueiro (President of TecMinho and Vice-Rector of UMinho) and Jorge Portugal (Director-General of COTEC Portugal)
7 May, 4.30 pm | 12th Anniversary of Startup Braga and Presentation of the Bio-MedTech Hub, featuring João Fernandes (Director of Startup Braga), Neide Vieira (COO of IPLEXMED), João Pedro Ribeiro (CEO of PeekMed), Paulina Piairo (COO of RUBYnanomed), Sónia Ferreira (CEO of BestHealth4U), Luís Rodrigues (director of InvestBraga), Jorge Pedrosa (president of the 2CA-Braga Academic Clinical Centre and professor at the UMinho School of Medicine) and Raul Fangueiro (vice-rector of UMinho)
21 May, 2.00 pm | “Impulse – Defence and Protection” initiative and presentation of the Fibrenamics Innovation Hub – Defence & Protection, with speakers including Raul Fangueiro (Vice-Rector of UMinho)
22 May, 09:00 | Conference “AI and HPC as Drivers of Regional Competitiveness”, featuring Ricardo J. Machado (President of the CCG/ZGDV Institute and Professor at the UMinho School of Engineering), Paulo Cortez (Researcher at the CCG/ZGDV Institute and Professor at the UMinho School of Engineering), Nuno Crasto (Vice-Rector of UMinho), António Sousa (representative of CNCA – National Centre for Advanced Computing and lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the UMinho School of Engineering), Teresa Martins (CEO of Neadvance) and Miguel Amador (CIO of Complear)
22 May, 2.30 pm | Conference “The New Cycle for Innovation and Science”, co-organised by CCDR-Norte
28 and 29 May, 10.00 am | Business Fair and Qualifica-te Braga’26, featuring various stands on training, innovation and employment linked to UMinho
+Info: Programa, InvestBraga, Bio-MedTech Hub, Fibrenamics
