Entrepreneurship and innovation are priority objectives for the development and increased competitiveness of the national economy. Portugal shall build a new economic reality, competitive and open to the world, based on knowledge and innovation, highly qualified human capital and strong entrepreneurial spirit.
Despite the progress that these matters have come to know in recent decades, it turns out that there are structural problems, which lead to negative impacts on economic recovery capability. It is noteworthy, for example, insufficient capacity for economic profitability of Research and Development (R & D) or the low impact of venture capital, a circumstance that limits new projects financing solutions and leads to a negligible weight of science and technology in the overall economy.
In this context, entrepreneurship and innovation need to be a priority intervention and especially directed to the nature of business activities, going beyond the fields of research and science. The priorities of Europa2020 strategy and its initiative Innovation Union are references to the development of innovation policy in Portugal for years to come. It is essential that the successes start to be evaluated by specific metrics in the short, medium and long term, not just the investment made.
It is within this scope that it becomes even more relevant and urgent to adopt an integrated, cross-sectional view to all areas of activity of the Government of Portugal and civil society, to develop policies mentioned. This objective is embodied in the Strategic Program for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (+e+i).
