There are people who are content with what they imagine, and there are people who insist on putting what they imagine into practice. The four researchers who have been developing the IMAGI project at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa) belong to the second group. Anyone reading the name might be misled and say ‘imagi’ instead of ‘imagui’, as the quartet of researchers intended, but that did not prevent the project, which aims to stop chronic pain in children, from winning last week's business idea competition at the Universe event, which took place at the Portugal Pavilion (Pavilhão de Portugal), in parallel with the Web Summit.
“We noticed that there were good reactions from the audience, but we had no idea whether or not we would win the competition,” replies Mariana de Oliveira, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering and Biophysics at Ciências ULisboa. “This is a project that has an impact and has had satisfactory results in the tests we have already carried out with children. In addition, we managed to get the message across to the audience. I think these were the ingredients that secured our victory in the competition," she adds.
The Universe event was designed to showcase some of the most innovative projects from Portuguese universities. In addition to exhibiting projects and networking with potential investors and partners, the event also featured a pitch competition, which stood out for its business idea presentations. Among participants and organisers, no one hid their intention to take advantage of the proximity and presence of visitors to Web Summit, which took place between FIL and Meo Arena.
‘These events are useful for showing that there is a lot of science and technology in universities,’ says Inês Neto, coordinator of the Ciências Innovation Office ULisboa. ‘It was important to give a stage to the projects that are under development at Ciências ULisboa and allowed those responsible for the various projects to discover new perspectives through contact with people who have other types of experiences.’
