The project F2F Health Matters launched its third call to support the internationalisation actions of SMEs to United Arab Emirates (UAE) – the third target country selected by the project consortium. It gives the European SMEs in healthy food and bio-based value chains a unique opportunity to expand their business to this Arab market and to start new internationalisation journey.

Three types of internationalisation support

SMEs can apply to benefit from three types of internationalisation support. Commercial Lead Support covers the consultancy services of commercial prospection on Arab market. SMEs can get personalised support from external service providers with excellent market knowledge, which will be financed by the consortium partners.

The second type of support SMEs can apply for includes Travel Aid to support their participation in a collective internationalisation mission to UAE organised within this project. SMEs can reimburse their travel costs up to EUR 2 000 and meet potential business partners, leading to new business agreements and promising collaborations. 

Complementary to the financial types of support, SMEs can become part of the Elite Programme, which consists of tailor-made training and coaching on technical, innovation and market-oriented topics and provides access to an online community to skill up on various internationalisation topics.

How to apply

SMEs can apply by submitting the online application form by June 7th, 2023. All applications will be carefully assessed, and the selection will lead to the creation of the SMEs cohort. The whole procedure will be finalised by the end of June 2023, followed by specialised training sessions and personalised consultancy services to selected SMEs. The internationalisation mission to UAE is planned for January/February 2024.

All information about the call and application and selection process can be found on the project website in Get involved session.   

2 missions: Canada & Japan

The Champion and Elite SMEs of the first and second call were already selected. The consortium of F2F Health Matters organized the first internationalization mission to Canada in November 2022, whereby the second mission to Japan is currently being prepared and will take place in June 2023.

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The European project F2F Health Matters is an internationalisation accelerator for innovative agri-food SMEs. It is driven by an alliance of five European clusters: Wagralim (Belgium), Clusaga (Spain), Bioeconomy Cluster (Slovakia), InovCluster (Portugal) and Valorial (France). It is funded by the European Programme for the Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) within the framework of the European Strategic Cluster Partnerships - Going International (ESCP-4i).