At the Haddad NOVA Medical Innovation Center, we strongly believe that education and training are the foundations of successful healthcare innovation. As part of NOVA Medical School, our programs emphasize technology-based entrepreneurship, specifically to medical innovation. We offer comprehensive educational programs, specialized workshops and interactive seminars focused on entrepreneurship, technological innovation, intellectual property management, knowledge transfer, market research and business development in the healthcare sector.

Recognizing the value of guidance and real-world expertise, we connect medical entrepreneurs with experienced mentors and health key opinion leaders. Through personalized mentorship, we empower innovators with the knowledge, tools, and networks essential for driving innovative health technologies into commercialization.

A key component of the Haddad NOVA Medical Innovation Center is the Pre-clinical-to-Clinical Innovation Hub, that brings together NOVA Medical School community in a collaborative and interdisciplinary ecosystem for cocreation. Healthcare professionals, clinical researchers, biomedical scientists, and data experts work together to address needs in the health care and for societal challenges. This hub provides robust infrastructure and resources to accelerate technology development and validation from preclinical research to clinical application. The Hub consists of interconnected pillars working in synergy:

• preclinical support infrastructure,
• clinical support infrastructure,
• regulatory compliance support,
• innovation and business office, and
• intellectual property management.

These interconnected pillars work in synergy to ensure an accelerated path from translational research to real-world validation, creating an integrated ecosystem that facilitates a smooth transition to clinical validation and commercialization.

At the heart of this ecosystem, NOVA Medical School orchestrates the largest network of healthcare stakeholders in Portugal, with research centers, Local Health Units that include private and public hospitals, including a dedicated children's hospital and the Lisbon Cancer Hospital (IPO Lisboa), as well as patient associations and strategic alliances with industry.

Haddad NOVA Medical Innovation Centre actively supports internal researchers, external entrepreneurs, and startups, guiding them through the final validation phases of pioneering health technologies. NOVA Medical School complies with the highest European and national regulatory and ethical standards. Our internal infrastructure includes an ethics committee, legal department, and data protection support, reinforcing compliance and ethical integrity. Furthermore, the Centre provides comprehensive support structures such as the biobank, clinical research support infrastructure, preclinical infrastructures with clinically relevant in vitro and in vivo models, regulatory compliance support, innovation and business office, and intellectual property management. NOVA Medical School has established processes that significantly reduce the time and cost associated with developing novel therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices. Our collaborative environment drives technological maturation into tangible healthcare solutions, accelerating the transition from preclinical studies to clinical trials, directly responding to regulatory and market barriers in healthcare. Through structured mentorship and comprehensive regulatory guidance, we enable innovators to navigate complex pathways toward successful commercialization.