The visit included an institutional working meeting attended by João Gabriel Silva, President of the Board of Instituto Pedro Nunes, Miguel Antunes, Vice-President of Câmara Municipal de Coimbra, Ricardo Gafeira, Coordinator of the UC Space Hub, Nuno Mendonça, Vice-Rector of the Universidade de Coimbra, João Ramalhete Carvalho, President of Go Coimbra, and Carlos Cerqueira, Coordinator of Coimbra Supernova. Representatives of the companies that are part of Coimbra Supernova also attended the session.

The meeting provided an opportunity to present the work developed by the different members of the alliance and to discuss European policies in the areas of Space and Defence, as well as EU funding opportunities relevant to the projects and companies within this ecosystem.

The visit was also linked to the work carried out by Hélder Sousa Silva at the European Parliament, particularly in the areas of Security and Defence and Budgets, providing an opportunity to discuss key European dossiers with an impact on these sectors, as well as funding opportunities and support instruments available at EU level.

The programme also included visits to three IPN-incubated companies that are part of Coimbra Supernova: Open Cosmos, Neuraspace and Spotlite. These visits provided an opportunity to learn more about the projects and solutions developed by the companies and to highlight the contribution of the Coimbra Region’s innovation ecosystem to the Space sector.

This initiative strengthened cooperation between public entities, universities, innovation centres and companies in the development of the Space cluster in the Coimbra Region, while promoting closer links with the European Parliament and dialogue on opportunities for European cooperation and funding.