Euroclusters are launching their first cascade funding calls!

As of March 2023, 11 out of 30 existing Euroclusters, funded through the Single Market Programme, have already published their first calls for financial support to third parties.

What are the EUROCLUSTERS?

Euroclusters are cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary and trans-European strategic initiatives gathering industry clusters and other economic actors, such as research organisations, companies, etc. to implement the EU Industrial Strategy. They will create new business opportunities for SMEs and integrate them better in European and global strategic value chains.

The Euroclusters build upon European Commission’s experience with the 4 strands of “European Cluster Partnerships”, supported under Horizon 2020 (Innovation) and COSME (Internationalisation, Excellence and Smart Specialisation Investments).

Background

On 1 of September 2022, 30 Euroclusters have been launched: they are composed of 171 partners overall and cover 23 different countries (of which 22 are EU Member States) and all 14 industrial ecosystems.

20 Euroclusters work on concrete initiatives in specific industrial ecosystems, while 10 Euroclusters work across several industrial ecosystems.

Objectives

The Euroclusters contribute to building resilience and accelerating transition to green and digital economy through 6 specific objectives:

1. Network to improve the resilience of the EU industrial ecosystems by developing value chains interlinkages in the EU Single Market;
2. Innovate for strategic autonomy to build capacity in the most critical supplies and technologies of their ecosystems;
3. Adopt processes and technologies to reinforce transformation into a greener and more digital economy;
4. Train to foster up- and re-skilling of the workforce whilst attracting talents;
5. Go international to boost access to global supply and value chains;
6. Outreach to attract economic actors, mainly SMEs, beyond Euroclusters’ locations.

The Euroclusters will seek to achieve these objectives through the management of cascade calls which will provide financial support to selected third parties. All Euroclusters will launch one or more calls for proposals in order to provide SMEs in the various industrial ecosystems with the tools and services that are needed to reach these ambitious objectives. The overall budget for the cascading calls published in the coming 2-3 years from the 30 ongoing Euroclusters will amount to more than 30 million euro.

Open calls

The first open calls for financial support to third parties, launched by 11 Euroclusters, are as follows:

• SocialTech4EU published a Call for Social Enterprises in Europe which will provide financial support for training, with a deadline on 12 April 2023.
• IKAT published a Call for SMEs in the Tourism sector, providing financial support for various types of services. The deadline to apply is 20 April 2023.
• B-Resilient has set an ambitious package of support actions to empower food processing SMEs to become more resilient. The deadline to apply is 24 April 2023.
• CREATHRIV-EU will award grants of different types to SMEs in the Creative and Cultural Industries for projects and activities that address one of the pre-identified challenges. The deadline to apply is 2 May 2023.
• PIMAP4Sustainability will financially support photonics, advanced materials and advanced manufacturing SMEs to develop innovative projects in aerospace, metal working and industrial production. The deadline to apply is 3 May 2023.
• The DREAM  Innovation Open Call aims to financially support small and market-oriented projects involving SMEs, consisting of the integration and the use of digital technologies into manufacturing environments. The deadline to apply is 25 May 2023.
• METASTARS, which stands for “METAcluster Support Towards a more resilient AeRospace and defence ecosystem”, launched its open call For Innovation Services for SMEs. The deadline to apply is 31 December 2023.
• xBUILD-EU aims to build an EU strategic partnership focused on cross-sectoral collaboration and cross-fertilization across textile, construction and advanced technologies. Its first call for proposals, opening on April 1^st, aims to fund 3 different grants schemes: innovate, global and green and digital grants. The deadline to apply is 7 June 2023.
• EPICENTRE aims to create new cross-sectoral value chains, from Digital and Fintech to Health and Agri-food. Their dynamic and challenging business support program aims at facilitating the  adoption of new processes and technologies by SMEs and comprises 3-phases:  LAUNCH-SUSTAIN-DRIVE. The deadline to apply is 29 May 2023.
• SUAVE will financially support European SMEs operating in the field of Urban Agriculture so that they can benefit from different types of services, allowing them to improve their resilience and business models, innovate to develop new solutions, accelerate their twin transition and expand internationally. The deadline to apply is 30 May 2023.
• SILICON EUROCLUSTER launched a call for demonstration projects of microelectronics systems, where 12 market-oriented projects involving consortia with at least 2 SMEs are expected to be funded. The deadline to apply is 31 May 2023.

To find all the Euroclusters open calls and get more detailed information on how to apply, you can check the  dedicated page  on the  European Cluster Collaboration Platform  (ECCP).

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