UPTEC companies contribute over 850 million euros to the national GDP

The activities of companies based at UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto had a total impact of 866 million euros on Portugal’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2024, involving 15,900 jobs, generating 514 million euros in wages and 182 million euros in tax revenue.

The figures are revealed in the institution’s latest Economic Impact Study, carried out by Isabel Mota and Armindo Carvalho, lecturers at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP), with the aim of detailing UPTEC’s contribution to the national economy over the three-year period 2022–2024.

The study, which demonstrated growth across all parameters over this period, analysed the direct, indirect and induced effects on relevant economic indicators such as GDP, household income, employment and tax revenue generated by UPTEC and its resident and graduated companies.

During the period under review, in real terms, UPTEC’s impact on GDP at constant prices grew at an annual rate of 15.55 per cent, a performance clearly above the country’s average annual GDP growth rate (2.62 per cent). Similarly, the impact on employment grew at an average annual rate of 13.2 per cent, exceeding employment growth in the national economy (1.33 per cent), as was the case for wages, where UPTEC’s impact grew by 20.51 per cent per annum, whilst total wages in the country grew at an average annual rate of 10.2 per cent. UPTEC’s impact on tax revenue grew by 20.63% per year, also exceeding the growth rate of national tax revenue of around 6.88% per year.

In 2024, UPTEC comprised 223 established companies, including Innovation Centres (19.7%), Anchor Projects (9.9%) and Start-ups (70.4%), which employed 3,469 staff. Between 2022 and 2024, these companies made investments totalling over 104 million euros and generated exports worth 616 million euros, accounting for a turnover of 819 million euros.

In addition to the resident companies, there were also 84 UPTEC-affiliated graduate companies which, in 2024, employed 1,436 people. Over the period under review, the graduate companies generated around 260 million euros in exports and 21 million euros in investment, accounting for a turnover of 529 million euros.

Looking in greater detail at the indicators, with regard to GDP (at constant 2021 prices, as recorded for the national economy), UPTEC’s contribution rose from 576 million in 2022 to 866 million euros recorded in 2024. As regards the impact on employment, the UPTEC sector increased the number of jobs from 12,400 in 2022 to around 15,900 in 2024, whilst wages rose from 354 to 514 million euros over the same period. Tax revenue, meanwhile, rose from 125 million euros in 2022 to 182 million euros in 2024.