Portugal's demonstrator projects call is open, and SMEs have until December to apply
Call MPr-2026-07 is open for business R&D demonstrator projects in Portugal. Who can apply, what counts as a demonstrator, the deadline and where to submit.
Apply / Learn moreIf your company is sitting on research that works but has nowhere to go, this is the call to know about: it is open until 17:00 on 29 December 2026 and it funds exactly that next step — proving, in real conditions and in front of people who know the field, that the technology actually does what you say it does.
It is called MPr-2026-07 and it sits inside Portugal’s incentive system for business research and development. Applications go through the Balcão dos Fundos, the single portal for European funds in Portugal.
What counts as a demonstrator project?
It is the step between the lab and the market. It starts from R&D work already completed successfully and exists to demonstrate, in real conditions and to a specialist audience, the technical and economic advantages of solutions not yet validated enough for commercial use. Put plainly: the idea has proven itself in controlled conditions, and now it has to prove itself outside. This call helps pay that bill.
Pilot lines qualify too, and — a detail that matters for anyone working in health — so do clinical and biomedical research projects at more advanced stages, including Phase I and Phase II clinical trials.
Who can apply to call MPr-2026-07?
Micro, small and medium enterprises of any legal form, provided they keep organised accounts. Small Mid Cap companies are eligible as well. You can apply individually or in co-promotion, where a company leads and runs the project alongside other companies and non-business research and innovation bodies, including those based in the Azores and Madeira when funding comes through the innovation and digital transition programme.
One requirement runs through everything: projects must align with the priority domains of the national smart specialisation strategy. That is not box-ticking — it is the filter that separates well-built applications from the ones that quietly fail. The full text sits in the call published by IAPMEI.
When is the deadline?
29 December 2026, at 17:00. Five months sounds generous, but anyone who has assembled a co-promotion application knows the slow part is not the form — it is getting three institutions to agree on budget and intellectual property. Start early.
Companies chasing productive investment rather than technological demonstration still have a productive innovation line open with a September deadline; the two calls answer different needs and do not compete with each other.
Illustrative · Photo: ThisIsEngineering / Pexels
