Entry into the SMART CORE energy cluster and participation in the European Cluster Collaboration Platform – ECCP

Through its Italy branch, Biomass Energy Projekt SA has been signed up for the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) as a leader of the SMART CORE energy cluster. As part of the European strategic partnership programme ESCP-4i: third generation 2020-2022), the SMART CORE cluster also submitted a project under the cluster internationalisation programme CLUSINT-01-2020. The project has been estimated to cost EUR 615,000, of which EUR 548,000 will be covered by the subsidy.

At the beginning of 2020, Biomass Energy Project SA – as a leader and member of the Smart Core cluster – began the internationalisation and foreign expansion, not only into the EU market, but also non-COSME countries.

As part of the cluster, three strategic agreements for technology and know-how transfer were concluded:

– Collaboration Agreement with Haier Israel Innovation Center; 

– Collaboration Agreement with Universita di Foggia 

– Collaboration Agreement with EIT Climate Romanian Hub 

The aim of the above agreements is to set out rights and obligations of the parties involved as well as the conditions and rules of executing trade agreements with partner companies for the above cooperating parties.

The Smart Core cluster with the participation of Biomass Energy Projekt SA as part of ECCP (European Cluster Collaboration Platform) will start a trade cooperation with several thousand companies from the medical industry and energy:

Cluster: MAGIA2MARKET (MedTech), 4 partners – access to 560 companies;

NE4HEALTH Cluster (Med), 5 partners – access to 250 companies;

ELBE PLUS (Smart Energy), 6 partners – 420 companies;

GEO ENERGY EUROPE (Energy), 9 partners – 600 companies;

GSSC (Smart Cities), 5 partners – 200 companies;

ELCA4i (Electronica), 3 partners – 370 companies;

C2Future (Smart Cities), 4 partners – 2425 companies;

GEN.ERA (Health), 5 partners – 80 companies.

As part of the programme, the Cluster will start a cooperation with non-COSME countries (in this case, with partners from Israel, China, and Senegal) as well as intercompany cooperation as part of the Cluster with the Italian companies. It will be possible, and we will make it happen thanks to our new branch Biomass Energy Project Italia SPA.

 The cluster partnerships began their work as part of the third edition of Clusters Go International. Clusters Go International supports clusters from Europe in collaboration and search for trade and investment opportunities and partners for collaboration in third markets for the benefit of their members, especially small and medium enterprises (SME). As part of the campaign, from 1 September 2020 onwards, the cluster partnerships began their work as part of the third edition of Clusters Go International

The partnerships make up 78 clusters encompassing 20 European countries. The partnerships will be operating withing the following sectors: clean technologies and environmental services, energy, health, mobility, smart cities, ICT, electronics, textiles and hotel industry. 

They are targeted for 19 countries, with the most popular being United States, Canada, China and Japan.

For the companies to grow in the globalised world, they need to take advantage of new opportunities arising in international markets. Activities supported by this campaign will boost growth, improve competitiveness, and reinforce the long-term stability of the participants.

The action will also help the clusters and companies in responding to the latest pandemic-related challenges. The partnerships will work towards increasing the immunity of international supply and value chains, adjusting themselves to the recent changes in the consumer demand and creating international partnerships for innovation.

Previous experience has shown that SMEs – instead of doing it on their own – achieve a greater success as part of internationalisation when they receive support from clusters by means of international study visits, partner missions, and “associations”.

As part of this cluster, we started an additional cooperation with an Italian university centre – UNIFG (Universita di Foggia), Haier Israel Innovation Center and EIT Climate KIC.

EIT Climate-KIC is a knowledge and innovation community working towards expediting the transition into a zero-emission society that is resistant to climate change. With the support of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), it identifies and supports innovations that help the society mitigate climate change and adapt to it. The community is of the opinion that decarbonised, sustainable economy is not only necessary to prevent catastrophic climate changes, but also offers abundant opportunities for business and society. Convening knowledge networks: Joins together partners from the world of business, academic environment, as well as the public and non-profit sectors to create networks of expertise that facilitate the development, marketing, and empowering of innovative products, services, and systems. Thanks to these convening capabilities, EIT Climate-KIC brings together the most effective groups to create innovations that can enable systemic changes.