IPN: 2026 EU|BIC Award finalist

Age is one of the strongest barriers to employment. People over 50 who are out of the labour market have a difficult time getting back in, despite decades of experience to offer. Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN) decided to tackle this issue as an entrepreneurial opportunity.

Meet Fator C’Idade

Fator C’Idade is the first senior and impact entrepreneurship incubator in Portugal. IPN built it as a strategic response to its region’s Smart Specialisation Strategy priorities in Health and Wellbeing, and to public policies promoting active ageing, inclusion, and lifelong learning.

The project is supported by a network of partners that brings together IPN, Fundação Bissaya Barreto, and Coimbra Coolectiva, in conjunction with various stakeholders: universities, local authorities, social care entities, and companies. Furthermore, it benefits from European co-financing through Portugal Social Innovation – Centro 2030 and has local 4 social investors: the Municipality of Coimbra and 3 companies:  Climacer, Black Monster Media and GEHC – Global Elderly Health Care.

The programme targets three groups. People over 50 who want to turn an idea into a business. People of any age who want to develop a social initiative that promotes active and healthy ageing. And entrepreneurs of any age who want to build products and services for the longevity economy. The intergenerational design is deliberate: younger participants bring energy and digital fluency, older ones bring experience, networks, and resilience. The combination is the point.

Fator C’Idade runs in three sequential stages across an annual cycle. The first is a one-day acceleration event. It combines inspirational talks, three thematic workshops on problems and solutions, clients and business models, and pitching, alongside mentoring and networking. The second is a five-week capacity building programme around five modules: value proposition, persona, marketing and communication, business model canvas, and strategic roadmap. It includes individualised mentoring and a Demo Day preceded by pitch training. The third stage is six months of incubation at O Pátio, a co-working facility from the Municipality of Coimbra, one of the project’s social investors. Here, participants receive further training, individualised mentoring, and take part in networking events. Across all three stages, 18 mentors from the three partner organisations support participants individually, complemented by external experts invited to collaborate in webinars, networking events, and matchmaking activities.

Impact and success stories

In 2025, the programme mobilised more than 80 participants in ideation and capacity-building activities, generating 19 projects presented at Demo Day and 16 incubation contracts. The partnership received the 2025 Award for Best Practices in Active and Healthy Ageing in the Centro Region. In 2026, with the acceleration event already held and the capacity building programme underway, around 50 people are participating in the second cycle.

The programme generated multiple stories worth telling from its 2025 cohort alone: here is one.

About two years before joining the programme, Rita felt lost. With a degree in Human Relations and Business Communication, she jumped from job to job, searching for a path that would fulfil her professionally once and for all. She joined Fator C’Idade. As she put it: “I quit my job without a fixed plan or safeguards, but with the certainty that what would fulfil me still needed to be created.” Destralhe helps people declutter their homes, managing situations involving hoarding, moving, or inheritances. Essential items go to those who need them. Recyclable materials go for recycling. Collectable or restorable items are sold at symbolic prices. The help from Fator C’Idade proved decisive. “If I already had drive, those guys grabbed it, multiplied it, and threw it back to me,” she says. Today, Destralhe is growing at the pace of demand. It was forced to rent a second garage when the first ran out of space. With graduation behind them, they are now focused on finding a permanent space and consolidating their model before scaling.

Sustainability and replicability

The sustainability plan is built on three pillars:

• Evidence-based fundraising: quantifying impact data during the final year to secure public funding for the next edition and attract new social investors.
• Scalable digital infrastructure: converting training programmes into digital formats to allow replication across regions at low incremental cost.
• Revenue diversification: commercialising capacity building services to public and private organisations interested in senior entrepreneurship and the longevity economy.

The programme is highly replicable. The model is hybrid, modular, and has already been validated through international co-development. Its roots are in Silver Starters, a 2019 European project funded by EIT Health involving IPN, the University of Lodz, and Leyden Academy, with the 1^st edition of a course for senior entrepreneurship. In 2022, together with Fundação Bissaya Barreto, IPN launched the 2nd edition of the course under the Cinco Ponto Zero project, funded by the BPI Sénior Fundação La Caixa award. This project was twice recognised as a regional good practice in Active Ageing and referenced by the EBN through the Better Incubation – LIAISE project.

Population ageing is a shared challenge across Europe, and very few ecosystems have approached it from an entrepreneurship angle. Any EU|BIC in a region where demographic pressure is building has what it takes to replicate this programme. The methodology is available at fatorcidade.pt. The results exceeded its own targets. The demand is there.

Instituto Pedro Nunes will pitch Fator C’Idade on stage at EBN Congress 2026 in Trentino on 18 June. The audience votes for the winner.