Meet the Member BGT Consulting Group with Vagner Morais

Name: Vagner Pinto Morais

Email: vpintomorais@bgtconsultinggroup.com

Company: BGT Consulting Group (BGT)

Website: www.bgtconsultinggroup.com

Position: Director

Date: 05/2024

Briefly describe your professional career.

With a background in Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEUP) and Management (MBA at London Business School), my career has gone through three distinct but complementary phases:

1. At the start of my career, I was mainly interested in scientific areas, having worked for around three years in an international organisation based in Geneva: CERN - European Center for Nuclear Research.

2. In the meantime, I made the transition to business consulting, where I had the opportunity to spend more than 10 years with clients in various industries, from telecommunications to energy and later in the government area, having worked for 5 years in Brussels at the European Commission;

3. Finally, after an MBA, I made the transition to advisory and funding innovation consultancy, with a focus on financing and consulting in areas related to innovation, project finance, innovation and growth funding. I am currently an entrepreneur and director of a boutique consultancy and advisory firm, with regular involvement in consulting for the private sector, innovation agencies & public funding bodies, and innovation funds in the area of R&D projects, investments and innovation scale-up.

Briefly describe your company and the work you do there.

BGT is a boutique advisory firm in the area of innovation strategy and innovation & technology financing, with a focus on public and private sector clients, from large and small companies, including start-ups. We were born with a positioning and interest in collaborations at the intersection of Business, Government and Technology, hence the acronym BGT - Business, Government and Technology. Despite our industry-agnostic positioning, we are interested in projects and partnerships in two major sectoral areas, completely aligned with the European Union's main priorities and major global challenges, namely:

1) Energy transition - energy, climate change and low carbon/net zero technologies, from hydrogen to industrial applications in nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc.

2) Digital transition - from industrial technologies to emerging technologies such as highperformance, quantum computing.

What sets your company apart from its competitors?

BGT has a number of differentiating elements, resulting in a unique and relevant positioning in our market. I would highlight three aspects:

1. Focus on deeptech segments: this type of segment is characterised by companies with a ‘highrisk’/‘high-growth’ profile, with companies with high value-added propositions. The big challenge here is to have access to talent, a team of employees and consultants with unique and highly specialised profiles - from policy and business specialists to PhDs in scientific and technological areas.

2. Focus on IP-driven sectors: somewhat related to the previous point is our focus on companies and projects with exceptional IP and disruptive potential to create new markets and value chains in sectors of relevance to Europe and global markets. Naturally, this requires a constant focus on the ability to identify opportunities and partnerships that fit into this spirit.

3. Focus on collaborative partnerships in strategic sectors: unlike many companies that focus on structuring projects in ad-hoc sectors (depending on their client portfolio), at BGT we seek to develop a roadmap of challenges in critical areas for Europe. This naturally requires the ability to attract track-record partners and the operational and financial muscle to develop public-private partnerships, involving not only companies, universities and research centres, but also policy-making and innovation bodies in strategic sectors with high added value.

What services can you offer other CCBP members?

Within our advisory activities there are 3 dimensions of relevance to our network of CCBP members:

1. In the field of public funding instruments, we are available to provide support in identifying European funding programmes and lines for your technology and innovation projects;

2. In the field of private funding, we work with a network of investors, including angel investors, venture capital funds and private equity for projects with a technological and innovative dimension, covering different stages of maturity from early stage to growth stage and international expansion.

3. Finally, we are open to partnerships and collaborations in innovation and technology projects, of a collaborative nature, with expertise and interest in cross-cutting project areas, namely project management, market and policy studies, scale-up strategies, commercialisation of research, innovation & funding readiness support.

Why did you become a member of the CCBP?

I joined the CCBP, challenged by the former president - Rui Faria da Cunha, who has an extraordinary spirit of association and selfless interest in Portuguese-Belgian relations. For me, the CCBP is an excellent platform for being in permanent contact with the Portuguese community. Not only is it an antenna that allows me to have real-time knowledge of the Luso-Belgian events taking place here in Brussels, but it's also an opportunity to be in close contact with members of the chamber, from businesspeople to officials from the European institutions and citizens with an interest in Lusophone affairs and Luso-Belgian relations. The main motivation for joining was exactly in this spirit. After a number of years as a member, I realise that my expectations have been far exceeded - when I joined the CCBP, I think I knew 2 or 3 people, and after a few years I feel that the chamber is a big family, offering everyone the opportunity to meet new members, build bridges, cultivate relationships in the personal, entrepreneurial and cultural spheres between two countries that have a long history of friendship and diplomatic relations.