They are as young as they are talented. And they dedicated part of their holiday time to developing projects for real-life challenges that large companies are facing. Bondalti had the privilege of being one of them, becoming a partner of Unicorn Factory Lisbon and its Innovation Summer School.
After Lisbon and New York, it was Porto's turn to host the Innovation Summer School between 14 and 25 July, an initiative by Unicorn Factory Lisbon that seeks to introduce young people to the world of entrepreneurship and innovation. This latest edition of 2025 was organised in partnership with Bondalti.
The goal is for students, aged 14 to 18, to immerse themselves in the real world of business, encountering concrete challenges and developing innovative solutions and responses. The theme – "Powering the Next Generation of Talent for Industry in Portugal" – led Bondalti to ask the group to seek answers to the following questions: "How can we make the chemical industry exciting and future-ready? How might we attract, train, and retain the next generation of talent needed to help Portugal — and companies like Bondalti — lead in industrial decarbonization?"
Divided into four teams, the students brainstormed, discussed, designed, and structured their solutions in an enriching and growth-enhancing exercise—always focusing on the future of industrial innovation and the development of talent prepared for the challenges of the climate transition.
In addition to the launch of the theme, which included a brief presentation of the company and the challenge that was set for the students, Bondalti also participated in an intermediate mentoring session for the groups and at Demo Day, which took place on the last day of the bootcamp. André Oliveira, Corporate Responsibility Specialist, and Filipa Monteiro, Human Capital Development Coordinator at Bondalti, attended the presentation of each team's projects.
Ideas with a Future
Four projects emerged from the work carried out:
EduKey – A platform that helps students find scholarships that match their interests and companies discover the ideal employees for each position.
BondXP – An app that monitors employee performance and converts it into points that can be exchanged for rewards.
BoomLab – A gamified digital platform that empowers young people to solve real-world environmental challenges through chemistry and innovation.
Green Youth Challenge – A competition for young adults to solve the biggest environmental challenges together with industry leaders.
André Oliveira highlights the fact that students chose to invest their holiday time in this type of initiative, which says a lot about the drive and motivation of these young people from Generation Z youth: "It's very inspiring to see how they manage to combine enthusiasm and creativity with surprising maturity, structured thinking, and critical thinking. These young people are ready to challenge the status quo and contribute fresh, well-founded ideas."
Among the 16 participants in this edition of the Innovation Summer School, three belonged to the community where Bondalti operates (Estarreja and Aveiro) and participated free of charge, thanks to the company's support.
Bondalti's partnership with Unicorn Factory Lisboa, within the scope of the Innovation Summer School, is, due to its enormous educational value, aligned with Bondalti's social and corporate responsibility program, called Together Matters. On the one hand, because it stimulates critical thinking, creativity, entrepreneurship, teamwork and collaboration among young people from different backgrounds. On the other hand, because it provides an opportunity for the company to establish contact with new generations, listening to them and reinforcing its reputation among future talents.
