DNA was present at the 26th EBN Annual Congress – the European network that brings together 150 Business Incubation Centers (BICS) with EU | BIC quality certification.
The meeting took place on 5, 6 and 7 June in Enghien-les-Bains (Paris region, France) and was organized jointly with the French innovation network RETIS and the Val d’Oise Technopole and Brought together over 600 participants from 40 different countries, who had the opportunity to exchange ideas, best practices and networking opportunities.

The congress began with meetings of Special Interest Groups, focused on thematic areas of interest to EBN members. The topics of cooperation and sharing of knowledge and new services were the focus of these meetings, with meetings with Future Emerging Technology (FET) projects.

On the second day of the congress, a number of EU experts, companies, startups and investors discussed the “Value Chain of Incubation” with representatives from Knowledge Capital and Collier County, guest speakers, presenting their ecosystems. At the same time, participating startups had the opportunity to participate in the Incobra Brokerage Event, which for the first time occurred in Europe with great success. During the afternoon of this 2nd day of the Congress, the Open Startup Exhibition was held in parallel with sessions on inclusive incubation – the FIBIA project – and internationalization – with Incobra, Near US and Collier Count, ending the day with the General Assembly EBN, in which the new executive board, chaired by new CEO Javier Echarri, and the new Board of EBN were presented.

The last day of the Congress continued with the Open Ecosystems Awards, which ended with voting for the best entrepreneurial ecosystems. The winners were Angers Technopole (France) got the first place and a joint initiative of the Basque Country (Spain), Bind 4.0, won the second.

The Portuguese delegation was present not only with the representatives of the EU | BICS but also with a delegation from RIERC – Network of Business Incubators of the Central Region, which made the Portuguese representation one of the largest in the meeting.