Run a startup in Portugal? The policy agenda to 2030 is being written right now
Startup Portugal has two questionnaires open, one for startups and one for incubators, and the answers feed straight into the ENE 2030 diagnosis. The final strategy lands at the end of this year.
There is a practical difference between complaining about stock-option taxation at a conference and having that complaint land inside a document that later sets policy. Right now, and not for long, the second route is open.
Startup Portugal is building the National Entrepreneurship Strategy 2030, the document that will set the public-policy agenda for entrepreneurship in Portugal across 2026-2030. The process is currently in its diagnosis phase, which happens to be the phase where saying something still changes something.
What is open, and to whom
Two questionnaires, and only two. One is for founders and teams at startups and scaleups. The other is for incubators and accelerators. Startup Portugal is direct about why the consultation starts here: these are the people who know the ground-level barriers best, and their answers feed the diagnosis and the proposed measures directly.
One honest caveat. The page publishes no closing date. If you fall into either category, answer early rather than late.
Three pillars, and the calendar
The strategy is organised around a company’s life cycle. Ignite, meaning talent, knowledge and the link between academia and entrepreneurship. Support, meaning financing, incentives and the instruments that let a company scale. Connect, meaning global markets, inward investment and Portugal’s standing in the European ecosystem.
The work is split into five phases across 2026. Diagnosis and consultation is phase two, the one running now. After it come co-creation workshops with the ecosystem, a first draft of the study in the second half of the year and, at year end, the final strategy with an implementation roadmap out to 2030 and a public presentation. Startup Portugal flags that the calendar is indicative.
Why this is worth your afternoon
Because it sits upstream of everything else. The calls you apply to later — and there are €182.5m for innovative SMEs closing on 30 September as things stand — grow out of priorities set in documents like this one. Feeding a strategy is slower and far less satisfying than submitting an application, but it is where the question of which applications exist in three years gets decided.
If you would rather have the immediate thing, the SME pitch prize takes entries until 16 October. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Image: Startup Portugal
