FCT represented at Web Summit 2025 with the session “Advanced computing opportunities for startups and SMEs”

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) will be represented at Web Summit 2025, which will take place from November 10 to 13 in Lisbon (Parque das Nações).

FCT will participate on November 12 in the session "Advanced computing opportunities for startups and SMEs," which will take place in Pavilion 1 of FIL – Portugal stand – with the participation of João Nuno Ferreira, Vice President of FCT, as speaker, and moderated by António Bob Santos, Member of FCT. Astrid van Toor, AI specialist at BlueOASIS, and Julia Masvidal Andreu, from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and Barcelona AI Factory, will also participate in this session.

One of the topics under discussion will be how access to advanced computing and AI can accelerate innovation among startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The InoVIA Program will be presented , which provides vouchers for innovation, allowing agile access to supercomputers such as Deucalion and MareNostrum 5, and is aimed at startups and SMEs that wish to use advanced computing for innovation.

Another topic to be addressed in this session will be FCT's participation in a European AI Factory, associated with the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, located in Barcelona. The AI Factory has human resources dedicated to providing high-value services and supporting SMEs in the use of this computing infrastructure, as well as in the development of artificial intelligence applications. The system installed at the AI Factory develops and operates a computing infrastructure enabled for Artificial Intelligence, serving the European Union's AI innovation ecosystem, in order to enable the use of Artificial Intelligence by the Portuguese business community, SMEs, public administration entities, and national researchers in academic and non-academic contexts.

Through initiatives such as "InovIA – Vouchers for Innovation" and "AI Factories," Portugal is enabling companies to experiment, test, and develop high-performance solutions using national and European supercomputing infrastructure and resources. These solutions make it possible to transform cutting-edge research and technology into real market impact and define the role that Portugal can play in the European ecosystem of AI and supercomputing-based innovation.