For the second time, people, science, and companies gathered at the Técnico Innovation Center for another edition of the Técnico Innovation Summit, the major annual gathering of Instituto Superior Técnico’s innovation ecosystem. INESC-ID was  present in two separate spaces: an institutional stand showcasing the PRR projects Center for Responsible AI (CRAI), Accelerat.ai, and Blockchain.pt, and a second space dedicated to live demonstrations.

Through the wide glass doors of the Técnico Innovation Center, visitors were immediately greeted by the Innovation Arena, an array of demonstrations, carefully set up by the different research entities. At the centre, facing the stage, was our very own INESC-ID demo station and volunteer researchers with live demonstrations from two PRR projects. A familiar face rested upon the table, the robot Elmo, who is no stranger to these kinds of events, often helping participants identify edible mushrooms. This time, however, he represented CRAI, which is developing fairer, more transparent and sustainable AI products. His adorable facial expressions were employed in a game called “the Emo-show”, designed to detect, interpret and respond to human behaviours in real time. Next to this demo was another well-known PRR project, Blockchain.PT, which, considering the season, brought almonds instead of the usual cherries to demonstrate how blockchain technology can trace the origins of food products from “farm-to-fork”, for more transparency and reliability in the agri-food sector.

Despite the grey, gloomy day, inside the main room a buzzing crowd moved through the colourful stands in the Innovation District to learn more about each institute and research centre. Our researchers hosted the INESC-ID booth, dressed in its usual green and blue colours, presenting not only CRAI and Blockchain.PT but also Accelerat.ai, another PRR project, focusing on creating disruptive solutions based on conversational AI to support more efficient interactions between institutions and citizens. Both our spaces were visited by numerous people, from researchers to students and entrepreneurs.

Next to the Innovation District stood the Innovation Impact area. Testwaves, an INESC-ID spinoff founded in 2023 that develops technology for the automation of video game quality verification using AI, was one of the many startups present in this dedicated area.

On the other side, the main stage also featured INESC-ID. Arlindo Oliveira, INESC-ID researcher and INESC President, moderated the session “Innovation Policy, Funding and Competitiveness: from Research to Impact” in which the need to transform public and private investment into tangible results was discussed with panelists including Pedro Dominguinhos, President of the National Monitoring Committee (CNA) of the Recovery and Resilience Plan. During the evening, INESC-ID researcher Ana Teresa Freitas was also part of a roundtable to discuss entrepreneurship and the challenges faced during the transition process from academia to creating a startup.

The closing session featured a speech by the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, who highlighted the importance of innovation and establishing connection between different areas in promoting knowledge transfer for a more promising future.

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© 2025 INESC-ID

Images: © 2025 INESC-ID.