Aquaculture vaccine project wins ‘928 Challenge’ startup competition

Online bootcamp connecting speakers and students

A start-up project aiming to produce probiotic vaccines for aquaculture was the grand winner at the final of the first competition for university start-ups between Portuguese-speaking countries and China, hosted in Macau.
Designed by a team of students from the University of Porto, Portugal, the project won the grand prize of the “928 Challenge” event, which came to an end last Saturday. The event brought together a total of 780 students in 153 teams, representing 50 universities from Macau, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Portuguese-speaking countries.
In second place was a project dedicated to the installation and use of solar power energy in the Gabu region in eastern Guinea-Bissau, presented by a team of students from the Universidade Lusófona of Guinea-Bissau.
Third place was shared by projects from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and by a team from the Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, who presented start-up proposals on biofertilizers and soap production from coffee beans, respectively.
Due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic situation, the final took place at the facilities of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries -Macau (Forum Macau), and only local teams were able to present their projects on stage. The other teams presented using online virtual presentation tools.
Initially, the final of the 928 Challenge was expected to take place at the Macao International Trade and Investment Fair, but was reorganized due to the postponement of the fair until December of this year.
In the first phase, the teams delivered a total of 89 pitch projects, of which the organizers had to choose the best 16 for the final events. There, they were evaluated by a team of experienced judges.
According to José Alves, dean of the Faculty of Business at the City University of Macau and co-founder the event, the competition was a major success. Conversations have already started with the Forum Macau about the organization of the next year’s edition, he told TDM.