ANI — National Innovation Agency (Agência Nacional de Inovação)

Supports Portuguese innovation capacity through policy design, funding missions, and collaboration programs linking enterprises and research.

ANI - Agência Nacional de Inovação is Portugal's national innovation agency, jointly owned by IAPMEI and FCT and positioned at the center of the country's innovation incentives. It works with companies and research entities on R&D and innovation support, with a role that is national in scope and tied to both economic and science policy.

Its tracked routes include SI ID Empresarial under Portugal 2030, PRR Mobilizing Agendas, Test Beds, Digital Innovation Hubs, Portugal's chips strategy, FITEC, and the SIFIDE tax incentive. Its tracked sectors are hardware, semiconductors, manufacturing, climate, and energy, which points to a portfolio that favors industrialization, scale-up, and applied research over purely academic work.

ANI also serves as Portugal's National Contact Point for Horizon Europe, the national representative in Eureka and Eurostars-3, and a member of the Enterprise Europe Network, but those roles are advisory rather than funding routes on their own. The agency is strongest for applicants that can pair technical work with a Portuguese operating base, a clear commercialization path, and a fit with EU-cofunded national instruments.