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Ana Costa Paula is currently Head of the Department for Collective Efficiency, Innovation and Competitiveness at IAPMEI – the Portuguese Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, where she leads national policies to enhance SME competitiveness, foster innovation, and support industrial clusters. She also serves as Coordinator of the Enterprise Europe Network Portugal, the national branch of the world’s largest support network for SMEs and startups with international ambitions.
With over 15 years of experience in business policy and innovation ecosystems, she previously headed the Business Policy Unit at the Directorate-General for Economic Activities, where she represented Portugal in several international bodies. She was Vice-Chair of the OECD Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurships (CSMEE), and Portuguese representative of the Committee on Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), and also served as National Contact Point for the Digital Europe Programme, covering areas such as Digital Innovation Hubs and Testing and Experimentation Facilities.
She holds a degree in Economics and a Postgraduate Programme in Public Administration. Throughout her career, she has been deeply engaged in shaping and implementing strategic public policies that connect businesses to innovation, internationalization, and sustainable growth opportunities.
