COTEC Portugal – Associação Empresarial para a Inovação (Business Association for Innovation) is a private non-profit organisation set up in April 2003 following an initiative by the then President of the Portuguese Republic, Jorge Sampaio. This initiative had the support of the Prime Minister and was joined by a group of companies whose global gross added value represented around 18 per cent of the national GDP in 2002.

COTEC Portugal develops its activities along three strategic lines of intervention:

‘ ANTICIPATE: Promote reflection on the trends and factors that will influence the next generation of business, business strategies, investments and the competitiveness of companies;

’ ACTIVATE: Create new platforms for collaborative innovation and liaison between Members and other players in the innovation system;

” ADVOCATE: Contribute to improving the system of public policies to stimulate business innovation and systematically and rigorously analyse their effectiveness.

On 27 May, COTEC’s General Assembly was presented with the proposal for the constitution of the governing bodies for the 2025-2028 three-year period, including the Advisory Board, which now includes Professor Pedro Arezes, president of UMinho’s School of Engineering, as well as several prominent national figures in the areas of Education, Research and Innovation.