Which door is yours

StartUP Voucher Innovate 2025–2026 Closes 25 Aug

A nine-month structured programme for business ideas at idea stage, in technology-based areas. You apply as yourself — no company required.

Who

Up to 29 years old, with a degree, not studying, not in training, not working, and with no other source of income. Tax domicile in Norte, Centro or Alentejo.

You get

€900/month grant (maximum two grants per project), plus €1,500 at the start of phases 2 and 3, plus €2,000 once you have created your own job. Incubator and mentor network access.

Where

iapmei.pt — Aviso 2026-01

Verified: iapmei.pt and dgeconomia.gov.pt (government)

Creation of your own employment

Your unemployment benefit paid to you as a single lump sum, to capitalise a business instead of drawing it monthly.

Who

Receiving unemployment benefit or initial social unemployment benefit, aged 18 or over, with a viable project creating at least your own full-time job.

You get

The full remaining value of your benefit, up front. Optionally combined with a credit line and technical support.

Timing

IEFP answers in 60–90 working days.

MICROINVEST and INVEST+ credit lines

Guaranteed bank loans at reduced interest, for people the ordinary credit market will not serve.

Who

Registered unemployed, first-job seekers aged 18–35, or self-employed earning below the minimum wage. Project must not create more than 10 jobs.

You get

MICROINVEST up to €20,000; INVEST+ from €20,000 to €100,000 of credit, on investment up to €200,000.

Where

Through a participating bank: CGD, Millennium BCP, Novo Banco, Crédito Agrícola, Montepio, Banco BIC.

National Microcredit Programme · and free advice

MICROINVEST reached through CASES rather than IEFP, for people facing labour-market difficulty. Separately, ATCP gives free technical help writing the investment and business plan, before approval and for two years after — the one thing on this page that costs nothing and requires no competition.

Verified: iefp.pt (government). The credit lines sit behind a Banco Português de Fomento facility of €253.3m — bpfomento.pt.

PEPAC — a wholly separate system

Agriculture is not in Portugal 2030 at all. It has its own counter, the Balcão dos Fundos da Agricultura, its own calendar and its own rules. This is why searching the main funds portal for farming support returns nothing.

Headline

Young farmer installation prize — a non-refundable fixed sum of €25,000, plus €25,000 if you set up full-time, plus €5,000 if the holding is in a designated vulnerable territory. Maximum €55,000.

Status

The last application period closed 3 June 2025 (aviso 01/C.2.2.1/2024, budget €43.6m). Watch the plano indicativo de abertura de candidaturas for the next one.

Where

balcao.ifap.pt — calendar at pepacc.pt

Verified: the aviso PDF itself, pepacc.pt (government)

The only family that names people

Across all 211 open Portugal 2030 calls, the only two that admit a natural person are both fisheries calls — and both run to the end of 2027.

Ports

MAR2030-2023-25 — investment in fishing ports and landing sites. Open to “pessoas singulares ou coletivas de direito privado”. €12.1m, closes 30 Dec 2027.

Young fishers

MAR2030-2023-13 — starting out as a young fisher, defined as “pessoa com idade igual ou inferior a 40 anos” qualified for professional fishing. €4.3m, closes 31 Dec 2027.

Verified: quoted verbatim from the government aviso PDFs

FCT doctoral grants

Individual applications, in your own name, through myfct.fct.pt. Annual cycle — the 2026 round closed on 31 March and results are due in November, so the next opening is the one to plan for.

Scale

1,600 grants, of which 600 in non-academic settings. Roughly €145m in total.

DGARTES support for projects

Artists may apply in their own name rather than through an institution — one of the few state programmes where that is explicit.

Scale

€13.35m across the project-support programme.

Verified: fct.pt and dgartes.gov.pt (government)

This is where the money actually is

Forming a company — or registering as an empresário em nome individual — is the single act that opens the largest door. 49 of the 211 open calls name companies, together worth €1.13 billion.

Nearest

MPr-2026-6 SICE Inovação Produtiva, €182.5m, explicitly targeted at low-density territories — which includes most of Alentejo. Closes 30 Sep 2026.

Also open

MPr-2026-1 energy efficiency and decarbonisation, €165m, closes 30 Dec. Two SIID research calls close 29 Dec.

Note

Four open Compete 2030 calls in total — the national business programme has very little open at any one time, so the calendar matters more than the catalogue.

Tourism — Crescer com o Turismo

Worth knowing what this is not: despite the name, companies qualify only for social-innovation projects. Public bodies and non-profits are the main beneficiaries.

Terms

Non-refundable up to €400,000 (public and non-profit) or €200,000 (companies), plus a refundable component up to €1m. Seven-year repayment with two years' grace.

Budget

€30m · rolling to 31 Dec 2026 or until exhausted

Verified: business.turismodeportugal.pt (government). Portaria 50/2025/1, amended by 159/2026/1.

InCubed, through Portugal Space Closes 2 Oct

Co-funding for commercially viable products built on Earth-observation data, anywhere in the chain from satellite design to end-user application. Submission is continuous; the round cut-offs are what matter.

Budget

€1.25m indicative for 2026–2028

Rounds

2 Oct 2026, then 30 Apr 2027, then 28 Jan 2028 if budget allows

Watch for

Portugal Space weights national impact at 30% when deciding whether to issue the letter of support ESA requires. That letter, not the ESA form, is the real gate.

Where

ESA ORBIT portal — ideas.esa.int

Verified: ptspace.pt (government agency)