Compete 2030 Reprogramming Lands a One-Third-of-Envelope Tender Wave Worth €1.1 Billion in STEP Concursos and a New Portuguese Financial Instrument for Startups — Alexandra Vilela Says the 10% Co-Financing Uplift Is the Operative Lever

The president of Portugal's Compete 2030 management committee, Alexandra Vilela, told ECO in a wide-ranging interview that the programme's reprogramming will open five concursos worth roughly €1.1 billion — equivalent to 'about one-third of the programme's allocation' — and announced a forthcoming Portuguese financial instrument specifically targeted at startups, supplementing the existing grant and call-for-proposals architecture. The interview lands inside the broader Portugal 2030 ramp-up that is rolling ~€3.9 billion across 220 concursos through the next 12 months.

The €1.1 Billion STEP Wave

The five concursos at the centre of the reprogramming sit under the EU's STEP framework (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform) — the post-2024 EU instrument that gives co-financing-rate uplifts and integrated-funding privileges to projects in critical-technology sectors. The Compete 2030 STEP notices break out as:

• Energy — Productive Innovation: notice for company-side innovation and capex in the energy stack.
• Energy — R&D&I: notice for research, development and innovation in the same vertical.
• Digital and Biotechnology — Productive Innovation: company-side innovation and capex in deep-tech and bio verticals.
• Digital and Biotechnology — R&D&I: research-side counterpart.
• Industrial Decarbonisation: separate €200 million notice targeting heavy-industry energy-intensity reduction (cement, glass, ceramics, paper, steel, chemicals).

The four STEP notices combine to approximately €1.1 billion in available co-financing.

The 10% Co-Financing Uplift

The structural change inside the reprogramming is the move from generic-rate co-financing to the STEP-uplift framework: under STEP, eligible projects receive materially reinforced co-financing rates, including a 10-percentage-point uplift across the standard schedule. The uplift applies regardless of company size — including large enterprises, which under standard Portugal 2030 rules face tighter co-financing eligibility. Vilela framed the uplift as the operative lever: 'taxas de apoio muito mais reforçadas'.

The New Portuguese Startup Financial Instrument

The interview's most consequential single signal is the announcement of a forthcoming Portuguese financial instrument for startups. The instrument architecture has not been finalised — Vilela's framing is structural-strategic rather than regulatory: 'Vamos fazer um instrumento financeiro português para ajudar as nossas startups.' The intent is to move beyond grant-based funding into a hybrid loan/equity vehicle similar to the European Innovation Council Fund template, but managed at national level and integrated with the Compete 2030 thematic priorities. Detailed parameters — instrument size, vehicle type, mechanism, and management entity — are scheduled for separate disclosure during 2026.

Defence Sector Added in 2026 Reprogramming

Vilela also confirmed that the defence sector will be added to the Compete 2030 thematic scope through a separate 2026 reprogramming step. This aligns Compete 2030 with the parallel EU Defence Industrial Strategy and the Portuguese government's Programa Nacional de Indústria de Defesa announced earlier in the year. The defence-sector pillar will operate inside the same STEP/financial-instrument architecture as the existing pillars.

The 220-Concurso Pipeline

Across all of Portugal 2030 — Compete 2030, Pessoas 2030, Sustentável 2030 — the rolling 12-month pipeline through Q1 2027 is approximately 220 concursos totalling €3.9 billion. Compete 2030 alone holds ~€1.3 billion of the January-April 2026 calendar; Pessoas 2030 holds ~€1.1 billion; Sustentável 2030 holds >€920 million.

What This Means for Expats

• Foreign-resident founders and SME-owners now have a clearer 12-month roadmap. The €1.1 billion STEP wave is open across H1 2026; the announcements platform finishes its update cycle every four months, so the rolling window stays current.
• The 10% co-financing uplift on STEP is the cleanest single lever. Foreign-resident companies in energy, digital, biotechnology and industrial-decarbonisation verticals should review whether their existing or planned projects sit inside STEP-eligible categories — the uplift is materially better than generic Portugal 2030 rates.
• The forthcoming startup financial instrument is the watch-this-space item. Once the parameters land, foreign-founder startups based in Portugal — particularly in the Lisbon, Porto, Aveiro and Braga clusters — will have a domestic, Portuguese-language fund vehicle that complements EIC, EIB and Portugal Ventures channels. The dedup with the existing Banco Português de Fomento, IFD and Compete-grant routes is the design question to track.
• For consultants, accountants and law firms working with foreign-founder clients, the Compete-2030 reprogramming represents one of the largest single workflow shifts of the 2026 cycle. Foreign-resident professional-services advisers should refresh client documentation now to align with the STEP-uplift documentation requirements before the H1 2026 application deadlines arrive.