Operation Code: NORTE-07-0364-FEDER-000027

Priority Axis:Axis 1 - Competitiveness, Innovation and Knowledge

Policy Areas:
“Promotion and development of the network of science and technology parks and integrated planning and business hosting operations”
“Support for the creation and consolidation of emerging clusters and technology-based companies in sectors that promote the interface with regional skills and capacities in science and technology”

Operation Name: FeiraPark – Incubadora de Empresas de Base Tecnológica de Santa Maria da Feira (Santa Maria de Feira Technology-based Business Incubator)

PortusPark (Network of Science and Technology Parks and Incubators) and the management authority of the "ON.2 – O Novo Norte” (Regional Operating Programme for the Norte Region) contracted community funding for the “Feira Park” business incubator in Santa Maria da Feira on 21 September 2011, at the headquarters of the Norte Portugal Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N).

With support from the ON.2 to the value of 1.5 million euros for an investment of over two million euros, this new incubator will seek to install facilities in the Entre Douro e Vouga region capable of attracting companies with “Clean & Green” technology activity. The sectors prioritised by the project for business incubation will be cork, new information and communication technologies, sustainable construction and production and transformation technologies.

Set in an area of over eight hectares, FeiraPark expects to be hosting 75 companies and have created 200 new jobs within 10 years. The synergies boosted by this new infrastructure extend beyond the boundaries of “FeiraPark” itself and encompass other local and regional facilities, including Europarque and Visionarium.

Helping to materialise and sustain “FeiraPark’s” activity are the partnerships entered into with the Universities of Aveiro and Porto, the Instituto de Desenvolvimento e Inovação Tecnológica (Institute for Development and Technological Innovation), the Centro Tecnológico da Cortiça (Cork Technology Centre), the Centro de Apoio Tecnológico à Indústria Metalomecânica (Portuguese Technological Centre for the Metal Working Industry) and the Centro Tecnológico do Calçado (Footwear Technology Centre).