Centro Region/Portugal
The Centro Region is Portugal’s second largest by area and third by population, with Coimbra as its main city. Portugal is classified as a Moderate Innovator, performing at 90.7% of the EU average in 2025, above the Moderate Innovators’ average of 85.9%. Key strengths include government support for business R&D, public-private research collaborations, and a high share of foreign doctoral students. Recent years have seen strong growth in cloud computing, production-based CO2, and resource productivity.
In Portugal’s Centro Region, Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN)—a leading innovation hub based in the region—coordinates the VR Health Champions initiative, which advances VR/AR healthcare solutions. Working alongside regional partners such as ULS de Coimbra and engaging actors from the wider ecosystem like Virtuleap and Medtronic Portugal, the initiative fosters collaboration between start-ups, researchers, and industry leaders.
The project is framed within the Centro Region’s Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3), specifically under the “Technologies for Quality of Life” platform. This platform promotes digital integration in the health sector through strategic action lines led by regional actors. It focuses on the development of innovative systems for health prevention, early diagnosis, and new treatments and therapies, as well as solutions that support active and healthy ageing and independent living across integrated healthcare and social support networks. It also emphasizes the adoption of interoperable digital platforms that enable citizen-centred services.
Partners and enablers in the region in this project:
Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN) is certified by ISO 13485 for the design and development of Medical devices for telemedicine and telerehabilitation , with its large experience in the coordination of international projects, gathers the competencies and resources for hands-on technical work, regulatory support and test and validation to help SMEs bring their XR health solutions to market.
Unidade Local de Saúde de Coimbra (ULSC) has the mission of providing integrated, high-quality, people-centered healthcare to improve the health and well-being of the community. ULSC directly serves a population of more than 400,000 registered users from 21 municipalities through a network of providers comprising eight hospital units and 26 health centers. As a national and international reference hospital unit, ULSC also provides care to two million inhabitants of the central region and, in many areas, is the reference unit for the entire country of Portugal.
Medtronic is a global healthcare technology company that develops and manufactures medical devices and therapies to treat more than 70 health conditions, including cardiac, neurological, medical-surgical and diabetes-related diseases. With a presence in over 150 countries, Medtronic is one of the world’s largest medical technology companies, focused on improving patient outcomes through innovation.
Virtuleap develops virtual reality solutions for cognitive assessment, training and monitoring. Their new product, Cogniclear VR, offers cognitive assessment in VR, based on neuropsychological validated tests, and the VR Health Champions project will accelerate its testing and validation.
