The European Commission (EC) will organise the EU – South MED Matchmaking Event in the frame of ACHEMA expo which will be held on 10-14 June 2024.

The EU – South MED Matchmaking Event itself will take place on-site in Frankfurt, Germany 11-13 June 2024.

The event will be jointly organised by the European Commission through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), in collaboration with ANIMA Investment Network, as part of the Euromed Clusters Forward project, Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) and Chamber of Commerce and Industry Frankfurt am Main.

Who can Participate?

This invitation is addressed to cluster and business network organisations interested in collaborating with South MED counterparts in the following sectors:

• Green techs and energy
• Digital techs and ICT
• Mechanical engineering and manufacturing
• Pharma and biotechs

Deadlines

This Call for Expression of Interest has two cut-off dates (deadlines):

1. 25 April 2024, 23:59 Brussels time and
2. 16 May 2024, 23:59 Brussels time (the second cut-off date will be announced only in case of still available places after the first round of evaluation following the first cut-off date).

First cut-off

Applicants will receive a notification whether their application is selected, put on the reserve list or rejected within two weeks after the first cut-off date. Applications on the reserve list may be edited and resubmitted until the second cut-off date – the last submitted application will be considered in the evaluation.

Second cut-off (only available if necessary)

Applicants will receive a notification whether their application is selected or rejected within one week after the second cut-off date.

Late applications could be accepted for participation, provided eligibility criteria are fulfilled and costs are borne by the participants. Late applications are accepted until 4 June 2024, 23:59 Brussels time

Applicants that are not selected may participate at their own cost if they fulfil the eligibility criteria of this call.

Applications on the reserve list of the first cut-off will be evaluated together with the applications received by the second cut-off date.

Apply and submit your expression of interest as a Cluster here until 25 April 2024, 23:59 (first cut-off date) Brussels Time.

The EU – South MED Matchmaking Event will bring together cluster organisations and SMEs from the European Union (EU), non-EU countries participating in the Single Market Programme/COSME Strand, and South MED countries: Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia. It will provide participants an excellent chance to promote Cluster to Cluster (C2C), Cluster to Business (C2B), and Business to Business (B2B) collaborations.

The overall objective of the event is to promote the exchange of information and provide networking opportunities for European cluster organisations and their members with counterparts from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia; particularly in the fields of Green techs and energy, Digital techs and ICT, Mechanical engineering and manufacturing, Pharma and biotechs.

The objectives for the participants include:

• Strengthening EU-South MED cluster cooperation for the benefit of their members, including a seminar, a cluster matchmaking event, and site visits.
• Identifying potential areas of common interest for cooperation and synergies, in terms of the sectoral, value chain, and market focus of their SMEs and other companies.
• Improving, through clusters, the EU-South MED industry and academia-industry collaboration in research, development, and innovation. For its members, the clusters will identify possible areas of RDI collaboration (academia, research organisations, industries...).

The call for expressions of interest is being launched to identify a European delegation made up of representatives from cluster organisations (please see the Call for Expression of Interest) who are willing and committed to participate in the EU-South MED Matchmaking Event.

By submitting an expression of interest in response to this call, you are indicating your acceptance of the call's terms.

Further details about the event, the eligibility requirements, and how to submit an expression of interest can be found here.

This call is targeting only cluster organisations and business network organisations. A separate call exists for SMEs. So if you are an SME you should respond to the call that is available here.

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