When universities and former students switch roles, strong partnerships and strategic collaborations can come together. One example of this is Granter’s relationship with Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
Bernardo Seixas, co-founder of Granter and a Católica alumnus, remained closely connected to the university as his presence in the startup and innovation ecosystem grew. Through podcasts, guest lectures, and training sessions, he regularly returned to Católica to share practical insights from his journey as a founder and entrepreneur.
Over time, these touchpoints strengthened the relationship with the Católica-Lisbon Entrepreneurship Center (CLEC), the university’s hub for innovation, technology management, and entrepreneurship, ultimately leading to a pilot of the AI Grant Consultant to support the knowledge centre’s funding discovery efforts.
Beyond CLEC, Granter has also built close relationships with multiple verticals within Universidade Católica, including with Católica Consulting Linked, which conducted a market research on the US ecosystem to support Granter’s international expansion.
Together, these collaborations reflect a strong and ongoing partnership with one of the most respected academic institutions in Portugal.
The Challenge
Available opportunities visibility
Universidade Católica has long-standing experience with grants and maintains an internal structure dedicated to managing incentives and applications.
However, this centralized structure does not have the capacity to support the highly specific needs, projects, and strategic objectives of individual knowledge centres such as CLEC.
As a result, CLEC had never applied for a grant directly and had limited visibility into the funding opportunities available in the market.
Missing out on relevant EU funding opportunities
Without dedicated resources to search, filter, and assess grants, the team lacked clarity on which opportunities were aligned with their goals and whether they were even eligible. This created a clear gap.
CLEC needed a way to understand which European grants existed in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship, and identify which opportunities were truly aligned with their projects and objectives.
Without this support, the team felt they were consistently missing out on grants that could meaningfully contribute to their initiatives and to the student experience.
Solution
An agent for innovation and entrepreneurship grants
Building on the partnership with Granter, CLEC implemented a dedicated AI agent, designed specifically for their context. The agent was trained through a detailed onboarding process, during which CLEC shared information about its structure, priority projects, strategic goals, and areas of focus. Based on this input, it was tailored to European grants in innovation and entrepreneurship.
The core module in use is Match, which serves two key functions for CLEC:
Objectives
From efficiency gains to broader funding reach
Status
Live deployment and ongoing evaluation
The partnership is currently nearing the final month of a six-month pilot. Conversations are already underway not only to continue the collaboration, but also to expand the platform to additional modules and other organizations within Universidade Católica.
