UT Austin Portugal Program promotes two entrepreneurship initiatives

The UT Austin Portugal Program is promoting two entrepreneurship training initiatives. Registration for the online course "Entrepreneurial Foundations" is open until October 15th, and the first edition of TechLaunch kicked off on September 19th.

Researchers, students, faculty, and professionals interested in developing entrepreneurial skills are the target audience for the "Entrepreneurial Foundations" intensive five-week course. It will begin on November 5th and will be taught by Mellie Price, an experienced entrepreneur and Executive Director for Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin (McCombs School of Business).

This training aims to provide a practical and strategic approach to the process of creating and developing innovative projects. Participants will learn the mindset, language, and frameworks that facilitate opportunity assessment, the framing of the value of science and technology, and effective collaboration with industry—all in a pragmatic, real-world format.

The course will be taught in English and is free, with prior registration required. More information, including structure, content, and registration process, is available on this page .

TechLaunch is another initiative of the UT Austin Portugal Program, the first edition of which is currently underway. It consists of an intensive technology entrepreneurship program. Its objective is to assess the commercialization potential of technology projects developed by Portuguese entrepreneurs.

The initiative is led by instructors certified by the National Science Foundation, as part of the I-Corps™ initiative, internationally recognized for its practical approach to innovation. This year's instructors—Aprille Busch, Weston Waldo, and Jessica Fleenor—bring with them extensive experience as entrepreneurs.

Over the course of more than a month, eleven Portuguese deep tech teams from academic institutions, research centers, and companies will participate in a training program combining online sessions with an in-person component, scheduled for November in Austin, Texas. This phase will include customer discovery activities and culminate in a final pitch , where the teams will present their proposals to experts and potential investors.

During the program, participants will be challenged to conduct interviews with potential customers and business partners, with the goal of validating the viability of transforming their technologies into commercial products or services.

More information about TechLaunch and future editions is available on this page .

Promoting technological entrepreneurship is one of the pillars of the UT Austin Portugal Program , which is developed within the scope of GoPORTUGAL – Global Science and Technology Partnerships Portugal . This initiative, promoted by the FCT, aims to strengthen Portugal's international position in science and technology by creating collaborative networks with leading institutions, such as the University of Texas at Austin.