There was a lack of technology companies, investment in research and development, specialised talent and the ability to compete with Europe's most advanced economies. This image no longer fully corresponds to reality. The most recent data from the European Commission show that Portugal remains part of the group of the so-called "Moderate Innovators” but grows above the European Union average and gradually approaches the most developed countries. The point is that the real challenge is no longer to innovate. It has become transforming innovation into global companies.

The report shows a curious reality. Portugal ranks first in Europe in public support for business research and development, stands out in collaboration between companies and universities and has a high number of companies that introduce new products and processes to the market. At the same time, young Portuguese people have digital skills above the European average, and the country continues to attract foreign investment in increasingly sophisticated technological areas. These are indicators that show a very different country from the one that existed two decades ago.

In recent months, I have written about Portuguese companies such as TEKEVER, GTechPlasma, Greenvolt or about the growing national space economy. I also wrote about the arrival of new Google submarine cables, about data centres, artificial intelligence and about startups that are born in Portuguese universities and are beginning to conquer international markets. All these examples demonstrate that Portugal is definitely no longer just a consumer of technology. It is increasingly producing technology.

But the European study itself also identifies what continues to hold the country back. We still have few patents, we export fewer knowledge-intensive services than would be desirable, productivity remains low and many companies find it difficult to turn research into intellectual property and international businesses.

Perhaps this is precisely where the big difference between Portugal and the countries that lead European innovation lies. Our problem is no longer generating good ideas. It is to be able to make them grow.

We create startups with enormous quality, but few manage to become world-renowned companies. We produce internationally recognised research, but all too often we see this technology being developed industrially in other countries. We train excellent engineers, researchers and programmers, but we continue to lose part of that talent to markets that offer greater scale and better conditions for growth.

That is why innovation no longer depends only on universities or research centres. It depends on the ability to create a true ecosystem where capital, industry, talent, energy, infrastructure, and public policies work in the same direction.

The good news is that Portugal already meets many of these conditions. We have talent, stability, quality of life, renewable energy, competitive universities and an increasingly relevant geographical position in the digital economy, reinforced by infrastructures such as the new submarine cables that directly connect Portugal to the United States.

The next step is no longer to prove that we know how to innovate. It is about proving that we can transform this innovation into global companies, skilled jobs and sustained economic growth. Because perhaps the biggest challenge of the next decade is not to produce more innovation. Whether it is to ensure that the innovation produced in Portugal continues to grow... in Portugal.