Institutional support program for entrepreneurship : the experience of the University of Minho

Entrepreneurship has a significant effect in promoting innovation, productivity, creating employment opportunities and economic development of a country. In many countries has been made a significant effort to promote entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur is someone who is able to develop new products and services, taking risks and identifying opportunities. The university programs have one important role in identifying business opportunities and support during the entrepreneurial process. Since Portugal has been particularly affected by the current crisis, with particular focus on the country's unemployment rate and economic operating conditions, which impact can have an academic initiative like the TecMinho’s IdeaLab of University of Minho? Since 2009, the University of Minho has in operation a business ideas laboratory, the TecMinho’s IdeaLab, which supports the generation and development of technology-based and / or knowledge intensive business ideas. Having already completed eight editions, it is intended to support students and graduates of the University of Minho from any scientific area. In addition to testing the commercial potential of the ideas presented, evaluates the vocation and entrepreneurial skills of the participants through the various stages of the program. Besides presenting and discussing the results over time, the paper complements the analysis with a case study of participants and ideas that were selected to initiate the TecMinho’s IdeaLab workshop phase. Since its foundation, the TecMinho’s IdeaLab has supported the development of 126 business ideas and enabled for 291 entrepreneurs the acquisition of knowledge and skills in business development and business creation, regardless their training areas. In addition to the individual characteristics and skills of participants, we analyze the characteristics of the ideas presented, in order to contribute for the understanding of the evolution of the program. The presented results make a contribution in the Portuguese academic entrepreneurship theme and in particular in the University of Minho case