Materalia is a competitiveness cluster dedicated to refining materials and processes. The cluster brings around 300 stakeholders together in the Greater East region of France and works in conjunction with national, regional and local authorities. These include medium and large companies, research labs and training institutions. Around 50% of these stakeholders are enterprises, and Materalia aims to help them to collaborate and become more sustainable.

Materalia cluster decided to apply to the ECCP’s Towards Green Transition Facility to exchange best practices and get feedback from European peers and experts. The cluster and its members have been facing challenges related to implementing the green transition due to a lack of knowledge,  and awareness. Materalia had identified the need to upskill in order to transfer knowledge to SMEs. Furthermore, to exchange experiences, Materalia jointly applied with their partner cluster the Advanced Materials Cluster of Catalonia.

The support provided through the facility helped the cluster in developing an analysis methodology as well as a new business model to increase the sustainability of their cluster members. In addition to this, Materalia was able to get to know new stakeholders, for example from Catalonia where they could develop new synergies as well as within their own materials ecosystem.

Materalia organised two workshops which had around 20 participants each, including SMEs, RTOs, NGOs and other stakeholders. The workshops focused on the methodology design and on how to structure a circular economy strategy allowing SMEs to develop new circular economy strategies. Materalia will also complete a support offer for SMEs, including creativity workshops to support members in their circular economy projects.

Having finished the support actions from the Towards Green Transition Facility, Materalia is considering to build a new project on the circular economy with a focus on wind energy as many wind turbines are coming to the end of their life cycle and will have to be dismantled. Further next steps are to think of future project opportunities with their partner in Catalonia and to prepare the cluster’s green transition offer to provide members with new services.