Business Incubation

Aiming at setting up the necessary conditions for the development of an ecosystem that would enhance social innovation, the AMP constituted the METROPOLITAN SOCIAL INNOVATION CENTRE (CIS-M) to serve as an instrument of promotion and valuing of this sector, allowing the municipalities and all sectors involved to play an active role in the establishment and application of new solutions to face their social challenges.

Therefore, the CIS-M ecosystem will potentiate social innovation projects, presenting itself as a facilitator to:

Financial support: donations, micro investments, access to venture capital, etc;

Establishment of networks between social innovators and the entrepreneurial ecosystem: entrepreneurs, social innovators, business investors and mentors;

Competence development and boosting, particularly as far as entrepreneurship and business development is concerned;

Infrastructures for the development of social businesses – business model prototyping through project experimentation processes that allow the idea to be tested and assessed in a real environment at a low cost.

Currently, the CIS-M is being developed in two centres, Sanjotec and Fábrica de Santo Thyrso, optimizing the resources available in these two technological incubators and challenging them to adopt a wider notion of innovation and businesses, namely social innovation and social businesses.

The CIS-M challenges the traditional response perspective towards complex societal problems, becoming an instrument for the capacitation of individuals and for the exploration of the social innovation potential of the AMP’s municipalities.

CIS-M’s Social Innovation Ideas Competition

Ideas for Society – Everyone Thinks Social

The CIS-M Social Innovation Ideas - Ideas for Society Competition was launched in order to promote a culture of social innovation in municipalities and empower people to develop their ideas in a sustainable way, starting a path for the sustainable development of social innovation in the Porto Metropolitan Area.

The “Everyone Thinks Social” competition aimed at challenging people from all areas of knowledge in the Porto Metropolitan Area to find the best social innovation ideas to help solve social and environmental problems in a sustainable way.

Competition website: www.cis-m.org

Social Innovation Campus

The Social Innovation Campus took place in one of the CIS-M centres, Sanjotec. It was the capacity building award for the 10 finalists selected in the competition on social business ideas.

As a capacity building award, the Social Innovation Campus was presented as a two-day intensive development programme, so that social entrepreneurs could develop their ideas and experience pre-incubation to which technological startups have access, particularly through mentoring and support to draft their Business Plan, develop the project, set up the company and contact potential investors.

The Social Innovation Campus was based on key actions such as themed workshops conducted by experts in the field of entrepreneurship and social innovation, working sessions with mentors and preparation of a final strong pitch to be presented to a jury.

Check the Campus roadmap and watch the video (in Portuguese)

Final phase of the CIS-M Social Innovation Ideas Competition

The final session took place in one of the interface poles of the CIS-M, Fábrica de Sto Thyrso, open to the general public, presenting a brief framework of the 3 phases of the Social Innovation Ideas Competition as well as the Social Innovation Campus, and handing out the participation certificate to the finalists.

The 3 winning ideas were chosen on account of their great development potential and ability to grow and also for containing the essential elements of social innovation, namely Innovation, Sustainability, and a clear market Orientation supported by critical Technology, without losing sight of their social mission.

The winners are inter-municipal projects, from Póvoa de Varzim, Gondomar and Porto, and they will be the first social businesses with the CIS-M signature.