The Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute (HEI) is part of Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), one of the top leading business schools in Europe. The Institute is the result of a partnership between Nova SBE and the Haddad Foundation, having the goal to further develop education, research, and support the entrepreneurial ecosystem from Nova SBE, Portugal and abroad. We aim to empower students with an entrepreneurial mindset and help them navigate the different resources available. We do this by 1) designing a focused learning experience, 2) developing complementary hands-on programs, 3) working closely with startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and 4) building a wide entrepreneurial community around Nova SBE.
The institute exists since 2018 and it already impacted +900 students and +200 startups that participated in events and programs led by the HEI. Our initiatives range from an academic perspective intervention (entrepreneurship area of expertise, entrepreneurship workprojects and workshops), support to students (internship program with startups, community of early-stage student entrepreneurs), support to entrepreneurs and startups (incubation and mentoring program) and an overall interaction with the broad entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem (startups acceleration and open innovation programs). We are closely integrated with Nova SBE academia, knowledge centres and student clubs, potentiating their initiatives and impact through our institute and actions with entrepreneurs and startups. Furthermore, we promote joint initiatives with external ecosystem players (incubators, hubs, accelerators), as well as with corporates (private sector) and the public sector, with some of our programs being developed within the triple helix approach.