Good practice:

SMART RURAL SMART HIESE: Structuring program to support entrepreneurship and rural innovation

Streamline a structuring project for entrepreneurship and rural innovation, leveraging HIESE as a preferred space for the creation of innovative ideas and business initiatives associated with the rural world, in a low density territory (Penela municipality)
To affirm the HIESE Habitat of Business Innovation in the Strategic Sectors, in Penela, as a privileged space for the incubation and acceleration of rural-based companies, through: 1) the generation of opportunities and diffusion of applied technological knowledge and 2) the capture and training of new ones entrepreneurs with innovative solutions. (consortium made with IPN - Instituto Pedro Nunes and Município de Penela (PARTNER).
The strategic axes were operationalized from a set of 13 actions, which are articulated in order to obtain results:
Action 01: Technological Roadmap of the Rural World
Action 02: Smart Rural Knowledge / Rural Business Ideas Platform
Action 03: Good International Practices of Rural Innovation
Action 04: Participation in events and technology scouting
Action 05: Creativity and mentoring workshops
Action 06: Smart Rural Contest / Business Idea Contest
Action 07: Rural Open Days / Networking and Brokerage Sessions
Action 08: Smart Rural Congress
Action 09: Rural-Based Business Ideation Program
Action 10: HIESE management and operation model
Action 11: Scholarships for Young Entrepreneurs
Action 12: Promotion, monitoring and evaluation
Action 13: Communication and dissemination

TOTAL COST: 325,105.00€
IPN COST: 325,105.00€
EU FINANCIAL SUPPORT (ERDF): 276,339.25€

HIESE Habitat for Business Innovation in the Strategic Sectors is an incubator focused on entrepreneurship and innovation in rural areas, owned by the Municipality of Penela, which has reconverted and enlarged a rural house, transforming it into a modern incubator with various features. HIESE have excellent conditions and services to support companies, especially in the early stages of their life cycle, reinforcing their capacity for innovation, growth and competitiveness.

Difficulty in promoting and implementing solutions that quickly and definitively convert rural (inland) territories into more attractive and alternative development hubs. Economic slowdown in successive years and difficulty in attracting and fixing young people in rural areas.

Territorial marketing (promotion of the region's welfare, quality and cost of living, cultural offer) is a key instrument in attracting entrepreneurs to the regions. The projects and initiatives that were planned for the Penela pilot territory were in line with what has been practiced internationally, serving as reference and learning for the implementation of this project - Smart Rural, Smart Hiese.