As part of the EU KETs4Dual-Use 2.0 project, the third and last business mission will take place during 29 May-2 June 2023 to Canada.
A total of 12 European small- and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with dual-use technologies and services, will participate in the tailormade visit, focused on developing sustainable long-term partnerships for companies who are ready to internationalize. A few of the 12 companies have participated in all three missions organized by the consortium.

The SMEs have been selected based on various criteria, and in addition to this, the dedicated local mission advisor has given inputs regarding each of the companies based on their technologies and the demand for it in the security and defence sector in Canada. As part of the preparations prior to the visit, each of the selected companies have had individual meetings with the mission advisor, to increase the understanding of the companies, their technologies, and expectations regarding which organizations they would like to meet during the week. Based on these conversations, the mission advisor has identified relevant stakeholders for the companies and developed individual B2B meeting plans during the five days in Canada.

In addition to the individual B2B meetings, the project consortium has chosen to organize the business mission in connection with CANSEC – Canada’s largest defence and security trade show, organized by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSEI) between 31 May-1 June. Participation in CANSEC is meant to maximize the output of the business mission for the companies, as the trade show is a great opportunity to further identify and get into dialogue with other potential collaboration partners.

This means that the first two days will be spent in Montreal before the delegation departs for a few days in Ottawa. The final day will be spent in Montreal for follow up meetings before the delegation returns to Europe Friday evening. In addition, during the first day of the mission, the delegation has organized two joint activities together with the EU funded consortium called EU-ALLIANCE in order to create synergies between the delegations.

Lastly, to prepare the SMEs as good as possible, the project consortium has organized two preparatory webinars together with the mission advisor, where the SMEs have been introduced more in-depth to the defence and security sector in Canada, rules and regulations, key stakeholders, cultural aspects etc.

In total, three business missions have been organized during the first 6 months of 2023, the first one took place 20-24 February to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the second from 20-24 March to Singapore.

The consortium consists of five partners: the French clusters (poles de compétitivité) OPTITEC as the coordinator, Minalogic and SAFE Cluster together with the Danish cluster Center for Defence, Space & Security (CenSec) and Estonian Defence Industry Association (EDIA).
The EU KETs4DUAL-USE 2.0, a 24-month project, is funded under the COSME Go International call in the defence and security sector, with the objective of intensifying collaboration across borders between defence and security and high-tech industrial clusters, in order to develop and implement joint internationalisation strategies in the area of dual use technologies, products and services towards non-EU countries.