From May 1-6, the representatives of the UTM Faculty of Economic Engineering and Business – Prof. Maria GHEORGHIȚA, Assoc. Prof. Rina ȚURCAN, head of the Economics and Management department, Assoc. Prof. Cornelia CRUCERESCU, FIEB vice-dean Stela CUCOȘ, Assoc. Prof. Iuliu ȚURCAN, and representatives of the Faculty of Computers, Informatics and Microelectronics – lect. Svetlana COJOCARI and lect. Veronica BAGRIN, participated in the International Week (IW), organized by the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP) in Portugal.
The event was attended by over 20 representatives of partner institutions from Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Lithuania, Poland, and Turkey, who presented their institutions, shared knowledge and best practices, and established new relationships for future partnerships.
IPP pays special attention to activities related to entrepreneurship and employment, which are valorized through business incubators: BioBIP – Bioenergy and Business Incubator of Portalegre – a structure dedicated to incubating technology-based companies, focused on the training areas of the IPP or the use of resources in the region. Currently, the incubator has around 40 small businesses and start-ups, mostly from Brazil, and is in the process of expansion. The incubation period lasts up to 5 years. C.BIP is the new business incubator of the Polytechnic Institute, recently inaugurated. It’s located in the city center and offers physical and virtual spaces to cultural and creative companies with a non-technological base. C.BIP can accommodate 22 companies and consists of several areas dedicated to co-working, as well as individual workshops. The common spaces include a meeting room, exhibition space, and more.
The main objective of the incubators is to promote and disseminate entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial spirit both in the entire academic community and in the business environment in Portalegre.
At the same time, IW included activities focused on the familiarization with the history, culture and official language of Portugal, various workshops and museum visits. For this purpose, the UTM representatives visited the Medieval Village of Marvão, located in the vicinity of the border with Spain, with walls dating back to the 12th century, but still intact; the Tapestry Museum in Portalegre, installed in the former noble house of the Caldeira Castelo-Branco family, dedicated to the presentation, conservation and study of a fundamental part of the national artistic heritage; Adega Mayor Winery (Campo Maior), associated with the picturesque landscape of the Alentejo plain in Campo Maior, and an original construction which combines the areas intended for the production and storage of wines, equipped according to the latest technologies; Coffee Science Center owned by the Delta Cafés company, which highlights the subject of coffee, namely the history of the roasting industry in the area, starting with the beginning and up to the present day, going through the entire cycle of the coffee bean, from planting in remote lands, going through the roasting phase, until serving in the coffee cup.
The Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP) is a public higher education institution that integrates the School of Education, the School of Technology and Management, the School of Health, located in Portalegre, and the Agrarian School, in Elvas. Through the lens of its priorities, such as the quality of studies, capitalizing on regional potential and the human factor, as well as the openness to international development, IPP is an active partner of UTM. Currently 3 students from FIEB-UTM are on academic mobility at IPP.
