The new call for Internationalisation Services of ELBE EUROCLUSTER is now open!

ELBE EUROCLUSTER will select 26 SMEs to receive financial support  for enabling the SME to start and deploy its market strategy towards UK, USA, Brazil and/or Japan.

The United Kingdom has 14GW offshore renewable energy capacity installed, and the ambition is to deploy up to 50GW by 2030, with up to 5GW coming from floating offshore wind. The project pipeline of around 77GW across 80 projects offer significant opportunities around the whole offshore value chain. 

The United States offshore renewable energy pipeline mounts up to 53GW. Despite a tumultuous 2023, offshore wind installation works are ongoing at the East coast with two offshore wind farms reaching completion. Recently, new lease areas have been opened in the Gulf of Mexico. The US targets to deploy 15GW of floating offshore wind by 2035.

Offshore wind development in Brazil is in its early stages, with an estimated potential of over 700GW due to favorable wind conditions. Currently, around 183GW of projects have applied for environmental investigation licences, reflecting significant interest and investment. The government is developing regulatory frameworks and incentives to attract stakeholders. There is a strong interest to link production of green hydrogen to offshore wind development.

Japan currently has six operational offshore wind farms, with two of them being large-scale, the 84 MW Noshiro Port and the 54.6 MW Akita Port projects. The Japanese government aims to deploy 10GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 30-45GW by 2040, including floating wind, as part of its target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Financial support provided

If you are an SME, you will receive the support for your international development in the form of a lump sum. This amount is:

• 1.500 € for the UK
• 2.500 € for the USA
• 2.000 € for Brazil
• 2.500 € for Japan 

SMEs may apply for support for more than one country. If so, they should submit one application per country. The total support available for this call for proposals for all four countries amounts to 53.000 € and is divided as stated below:

• 15.000 € for the UK
• 17.500 € for the USA
• 8.000 € for Brazil
• 12.500 € for Japan

If there are not enough successful applicants for one of the countries, ELBE Eurocluster reserves the right to shift the unused budget to other destinations. 

The budget may be increased in case that additional funds are available from other calls. ELBE Eurocluster reserves the right not to award all available funds depending on the proposals received and the results of the evaluation.

In case there are eligible applications, 10% of the total ELBE Eurocluster budget is reserved to SMEs coming from EU countries that are not represented in the ELBE Eurocluster consortium.

Selection

A limited number of SMEs can benefit from the financial support. Eligible applicants (cf. eligibility conditions) will be evaluated upon the following selection criteria: 

• Maturity of the solution to be exported;
• Knowledge and identification of the markets and stakeholders to be approached;
• Quality of the planned internationalization activities.

Deadline and application

Applications shall be submitted by November 3rd 2024 5:00 pm CET at the latest, on the EU Survey platform: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/ELBEInternationalisationservices_Call3

For more information about the call for internationalisation services to UK, USA, Brazil & Japan, please consult the document you will find in the following link.