Nikola Benin. The opportunity to collaborate for SME internationalisation

 Nikola Benin

The main objective of this action is to intensify cluster and business network collaboration across borders and also across sectorial boundaries and to support the establishment of European Strategic Cluster Partnerships to lead international cluster cooperation in fields of strategic interest towards third countries beyond Europe.
This action promotes cluster internationalisation where interested consortia develop and implement a joint internationalisation strategy, common goals towards specific third markets and support SME internationalisation towards third countries beyond Europe.

This action will contribute to increasing the number and strength of European Strategic Cluster Partnerships Going International (ESCP-4i) and help European SMEs access new global value chains and take a leading position globally.

Type of activities

The present call for proposals is divided in two Strands. 

Strand A will support the establishment of European Strategic Cluster Partnership – Going International (ESCP-4i) open to a wide range of European industrial sectors and value chains, except those targeted in Strand B below.

The projects under Strand A should comprise preparatory and an implementation-related actions.

Preparatory actions contribute to establish a "European Strategic Cluster Partnership – Going International" respecting all the characteristics defined in section 2.1 of the call text with the aim to develop a joint internationalisation strategy for the Partnership with common goals towards specific third markets and a roadmap for implementation facilitating the internationalisation of its SME members. 

Implementation-related actions concern the initial implementation and testing of the joint internationalisation strategy proposed by applicant consortia. They shall foster the further development of the “European Strategic Cluster Partnerships – Going International” by building cooperation activities with international partners in minimum 2 third countries (i.e. non-COSME participating countries) or world regions and initiating business partnerships for European SMEs in each target market.

 

Strand B will support the first implementation, testing and further development of up to two 'European Strategic Cluster Partnerships for Going International (ESCP-4is) in the Defence and Security sector (dual use technologies).

The projects under Strand B are expected to build on existing internationalisation strategies and focus on implementation-related actions as defined above.

Eligible applicants

Applicants must be legal entities. 

For Strand A

Each legal entity must:

1. be established in EU Member States or countries participating in the COSME programme pursuant to Article 6 of the COSME Regulation.
2. be registered or have submitted a registration on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) by the submission deadline of this Call.

For Strand B

Each legal entity must:

1. be established in an EU Member State
2. be registered or have submitted a registration on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) by the submission deadline of this Call.

For both Strands:

The applicant must be a legal entity with a legal personality. This may include both profit-making or non-for-profit legal entities as well as fully or partly public or private bodies. In the case of private bodies, they must be properly constituted and registered under national law.

Eligible consortia

Strand A
Proposals must be submitted by consortia that are:

• composed of at least three different legal entities; and
• established in a minimum of three different countries participating in the COSME programme pursuant to Article 6 of the COSME Regulation, among which at least two must be from two different EU Member States. 

Strand B
Proposals must be submitted by consortia that are:

• composed of at least three different legal entities
• established in three different EU Member States. 

 

Applicant consortia can apply for one Strand only, i.e. either Strand A or Strand B. 

Eligible applicants can be part of maximum one applicant consortium for each Strand. 

Applicant consortia must verify that their individual members are not part of another application under the same Strand. If such a case is detected by the funding body, it will lead to the rejection of the organisation concerned from all proposals in the respective Strand. The respective consortia affected by the exclusion of (a) partner(s) must still fulfil the eligibility criteria as stipulated in sections 6.1 and 6.2 of the call for proposals in order to be considered eligible.

For Strand A: Applicant consortia funded under the previous 'Cluster Go International' calls COS-CLUSTER-2014-3-03, COS-CLUSINT-2016-03-01, COS-CLUSINT-2017-03-6, and COS-CLUSINT-2019-3-01 are not eligible for this call.