The “la Caixa” Foundation’s Promove 2024 program awards €5.2 million and has a partnership with FCT

New projects and ideas are emerging in inland Portugal to enhance the value of the region, in the 2024 edition of the Promove Program – The Future of Inland Portugal. The winners of the 6th edition of the Program have now been announced, with 45 initiatives selected from a total of 134 applications, which will receive total support of over €5.2 million in non-repayable grants.

The Promove – O Futuro do Interior (Promote – The Future of the Interior) Program is an initiative of the “la Caixa” Foundation, in partnership with FCT and with the collaboration of BPI, which aims to support highly innovative initiatives that contribute to the development and enhancement of inland regions.

Extracting pigments from trees for use in the textile industry, using Miranda donkeys to prevent rural fires, or harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to optimize olive grove irrigation or cheese production are just a few examples of innovative projects with the potential to enhance the value of Portugal's interior in a sustainable way, and which now have this support. The list of winners includes 11 mobilizing Research and Development (R&D) projects (co-financed by FCT), 18 pilot projects, and 16 innovative ideas. The supported projects are spread across the northern interior (11), central (10), and Alentejo (8) regions. In terms of innovative ideas, aimed at higher education students, the central region has ten of the selected teams, while the northern region has six teams.

Since the Program was launched in 2018, this is the edition with the most initiatives supported and with the highest total value of support. In its six editions, the Promove Program has already supported 146 initiatives, with a total investment of around €17 million (€5 million from FCT).

Read the summaries of the winning projects from the 6th edition of the Program and the ideas that contribute to the enhancement of the Interior.

Applications for the 7th edition of the Promove Program will open on November 25, 2024, and will run until January 29, 2025.