The Municipality of Santarém has entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Empowered Startups, marking an important expansion of the HQA® Visa Program in Portugal.
On November 11, 2025, Empowered Startups signed an MoU with the Municipality of Santarém at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. The partnership marks an important milestone and represents a crucial next step in expanding the HQA® Program into Portugal’s interior regions. This MoU exemplifies Santarém’s commitment to welcoming foreign investors, entrepreneurs, and professionals to the municipality and demonstrates its openness to foreign direct investment.
Through this new partnership, Empowered Startups will support the government’s strategic priorities, including attracting highly skilled talent, facilitating knowledge transfer, sharing best practices, and providing ongoing support for innovative R&D projects in collaboration with higher education institutions within the municipality.
Since 2023, Empowered Startups has partnered with the Politécnico de Santarém, a higher education institution located in the municipality, resulting in 12 project collaborations between foreign founders in the HQA® Program and the university. The partnership with the university has been instrumental since its inception and continues to foster new research and development collaborations.
The MoU with the municipality demonstrates how local governments in Portugal can enhance support for innovative R&D projects and attract increased levels of foreign direct investment to the region.
