Lisbon is connected to another three cities across Europe through Digistar project (Malmö) and ePlus Ecosystem project (Baden-Württemberg, Nice). The organisations that ensure this connection are: Startup Lisboa, The Lisbon Council, Lisboa Cámara Municipal, Unidemi and Beta-i.

Lisbon believes that the future of the city will be strongly depended of the capability to invest and support the areas of innovation, knowledge, creativity and entrepreneurship. Therefore, it has established an ambitious strategy to become European Capital of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and recently as a reward for that effort, has been selected as winner of the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) for 2015.

Innovation, creativity, knowledge, learning, experimentation and co-creation are key words written and spoken in city´s daily life.

Rumor has it, fed by unsuspected sources as the New York Times, Boston Globe or Financial Times, that Lisbon is the San Francisco of Europe and not only because of the hills and trams – but also because Lisbon may well be one of the most dynamic and exciting ecosystems for new business creation. The city strategy on this regard is to make Lisbon move beyond its known identity and its objective is to be one of the most creative and innovative cities in Europe, and city officers are very focused on partnerships and alliances to make things happen.

When asked “Why Lisbon?” Lisbon-based entrepreneurs offer similar sound bites: “Lots of talent”, “Affordable talent”, “Ease to set up the company”, “The city is small enough to use as a test site”. These are the attributes that entrepreneurs value when determining the favorable ecosystem for developing their business and that are being fostered by accelerating services such as:

• THE INCUBATORS NETWORK: Lisbon Incubators Network currently includes 16 incubators, adding more than 300 startups and 1200 jobs. The network provides investors and financing instruments, acceleration programs, entrepreneurship clubs and coworking spaces – http://www.incubadoraslisboa.pt
• STARTUP LISBOA: the city’s network of incubators also present in this project as an associated partner – The mission of Startup Lisboa is to facilitate the creation and development of entrepreneurship through a combination of infrastructure and specialist support services. This business incubator, which aims to support innovative projects with potential for internationalization, is anchored in a private non-profit organization- http://startuplisboa.com
• FAB LAB LISBOA: a digital manufacturing and prototyping facility – is a fabrication-laboratory located in Lisbon’s city center at a local market, providing a new rapid prototyping lab serving businesses and giving the city another important tool for innovation. The Fab Lab Lisboa is thought to function as a “think-tank” where designers, developers, students and other actors gather to develop projects for the local community- http://fablablisboa.pt
• LISBOA EMPREENDE: offers consulting services for setting up micro-enterprises in partnership with finantial institutions – http://www.cm-lisboa.pt/investir/empreendedorismo/lisboa-empreende
• LISBON ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK: A week of celebration, reflection, discussion and promotion of entrepreneurship in the city of Lisbon. All partners who have been sharing this adventure with us to turn Lisbon into a startup city were defied to submit an initiative/event to be held during this week. We just celebrate the 4th Edition – from 4 to 10 of May- facebook/semanaempreendedorismodelisboa
• STUDY IN LISBON: It´s a web platform that brings together information, actors and initiatives with the central objective of attracting and retaining talents, and positioning the city of Lisbon as a global hub in the fields of knowledge and innovation –http://www.studyinlisbon.pt

Lisbon Region: Facts and Figures

• Lisbon is the Capital of a country with 10.4 million habitants and center of a Metropolitan area with a population of 2.8 million;
• Lisbon is a region where you can find the decision-making centers of the country’s economy , accounting for around 37% of national GDP and employs around 1,386 thousand people (29% of the jobs in the country), expressing a apparent productivity of work 1.3 times greater than that of the country;
• The Lisbon region concentrates a large number of companies with a high degree of technology and R&D, being the space where they are located approximately 317,000 companies;
• It is also in the region of Lisbon that the staff in foreign companies and in high technology companies has more weight, compared with the national average.

If you want to participate in events involving these four cities, please contact either the Coordinator of Digistar and ePlus Ecosystem, or the five partners in Lisbon.