The NOVA Impact office created the NOVA ImpACT! Challenges during the COVID-19 outbreak, to contribute to help society in solving some of the most prominent problems at the time, while also engaging with students and creating some sense of co-creation community. After the critical COVID-19 period, we assessed the impact of this program and realized it was worth to continue and to broaden its scope of action.
The NOVA ImpACT! Challenges is currently a three-week acceleration program that runs once a year, where students, researchers and the overall NOVA community, are invited to apply and develop solutions that address real problems, focusing on, at least, one Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
This program offers an initial budget of 500€ to the 10 selected teams that work during three intensive weeks with the support of mentors, workshops, and NOVA resources to prototype their projects and pitch it in a DEMO Day to a selected jury. The best team wins an additional prize of 2.000€ to continue developing the project. We believe this budget works as risk-free learning experience that enhances the potential of creating more innovative projects.
This is an online program to allow teams to be as multidisciplinary and diverse as possible while bringing together the teams in-person in the DEMO Day and some mentoring sessions to foster personal relations and networking moments.

Isabel Rocha
Vice Rector for Research, Innovation and value creation
Nova IMPACT,  NOVA University Lisbon



Helder Lopes
Director of Research and Innovation
NOVA impact,  NOVA University Lisbon



Carla Portela
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Manager
Nova IMPACT,  NOVA University Lisbon



Rui Silva
Knowledge Valorisation and Intellectual Property Officer
NOVA impact,  NOVA University Lisbon

NOVA University is a people centred University, focused on creating value to the society. We understand the power of close partnerships and collaborations to create impact.
We count more than 600+ protocols but would like to highlight some of them:
Santander Universities, who constantly maintains a strong commitment to inclusion and education, entrepreneurship, and employment, by granting scholarships, including social support grants, the acquisition of transversal and digital practices, dedicated to students but also to teachers, researchers, and entrepreneurs.
NOVA Mentors Network, a pool of several Mentors with expertise in all areas of knowledge that dedicate some of their time in a pro-bono format to give back to the University their knowledge, time, and experience. Our programs and events are largely enriched by their participation and engagement.
Our protocols with different Venture Capital partners such as Indico Capital Partners, Armilar Ventures, Bionova Capital or Portugal Ventures. Our partners in different programs support the community with mentoring, inspirational talks, and access to funds.
Our remarkable innovation hubs from our schools, who do an extraordinary job in promoting the entrepreneurial mindset and empowering a thriving technology ecosystem in each school:
The Haddad Entrepreneurship Institute and the Leadership for Impact Knowledge Center from Nova SBE, The NOVA Innovation and Analytics Lab from NOVA IMS, the NOVA TechShip from School of Sciences and Technology, the FCSH Innovation Centre from NOVA Social and Human Sciences School, among several others.