The event kicked off with a talk from the EISMEA, represented by Arianna Dellaca and Lorenzo Tama from the Executive Agency of the European Commission for Innovation and SME, highlighted the alignment of the AURORA Project with broader European innovation goals. Following this, key partners including Valorial, Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation, FoodValley NL, Unimos Alliance, and OnTech Innovation showcased their main achievements within the AURORA project.

Antonio Novo Guerrero, President of the European Clusters Alliance, emphasized the pivotal role of interclustering in driving competitiveness and fostering innovation across Europe. The second part of the event featured project partners engaging in mini-round tables, exploring the contributions of AURORA ecosystems to sustainable food systems, focusing on quality, safety, and traceability. Stakeholders from agriculture, agro-industry, and nutrition actively participated in these discussions. The AURORA closing event aimed to be a testament to successful collaboration and innovation, illustrating how diverse European clusters collaborated to positively impact sustainable food systems. The participants were presented with tangible examples of the accomplishments initiated by the AURORA project partners, highlighting key figures that reflect the project’s achievements.

Here are some key figures from the AURORA project that our partners are eager to share with you:

• A community of over 500 contacts identified operating in the fields of quality, security, and traceability in the food systems.
• More than 140 ecosystem members, stakeholders, or partners actively participated in delivering cross-country consultations, workshops, and European missions.
• 89 SMEs/clusters/academia played immediate roles in preparing and delivering missions.
• 60 visiting organizations benefited from the CXC mobility scheme thanks to the AURORA project.
• Timely submission of 34 deliverables, with 6 face-to-face meetings and over 50 hours of online catchups.
• A 17-step journey across Europe, including France, Poland, the Netherlands, and Spain.
• 16 new services to cluster members tested both at cluster level and at consortium level.
• Involvement of 11 EU countries in short-haul missions, hosting organisations from Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain – and even the UK!
• 5 high-level training sessions hosted by external training provider Strategy Tools with more than 20 people across the cluster’s network.
• Delivery of 4 newsletters on schedule.
• 2 clusters labelled “Cluster Management Excellence – Gold Label”.
• One unique and memorable consortium to be maintained in the near future!