Building Global Innovators (BGI) was founded in 2009 from a public-private partnership between the Portuguese Foundation of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, to foster the transference of knowledge from research and universities to the market. The institution is currently executing 33 programmes distributed in three areas: education, acceleration and innovation. Since 2015, BGI has a successful track record with several KICs working in the areas of education, acceleration and open innovation activities for EIT Digital and EIT Climate-KIC (as a partner), and for EIT Food, EIT Health and for EIT Urban Mobility (as a subcontractee). It has also been part of the EIT Climate-KIC Portugal Hub since 2016, with FCT – University of Lisbon and Lisboa-e Nova. BGI has received 1501 applications, accelerated 383 start-ups from 76 countries, attracting a total of €263M, creating a total 1003 highly qualified jobs.
