On 17 May 2021 and 16 September 2021, 14 new cluster partnerships started working under the fourth edition of the  Clusters Go International action. The action supports clusters from Europe to work together and look for trade and investment opportunities and cooperation partners in third markets for the benefit of their members, especially Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

The Partnerships are made up by 75 clusters covering 18 European countries. The Partnerships will be active, mainly, in the following sectors: Ecoindustry, Agrifood, Sustainable Energy, Defence and Security, Textiles, Cross-sectoral: food, cosmetics, textiles, electronics and Furniture Industry.

32 countries are targeted with the USA, Canada, Singapore, and Japan being the most popular ones.

In a globalised world, in order to thrive, companies need to take advantage of new opportunities created at international markets. The activities supported by this action will reinforce the growth, enhance the competitiveness and strengthen the long-term sustainability of participants.

The action will also help clusters and companies to respond to the most recent challenges created by the pandemic. Partnerships will work towards making international supply and value chains more resilient, adjusting to recent shifts in consumer demand and creating international partnerships for innovation.

Previous experience showed us that SMEs, instead of doing it alone, are more successful in internationalisation when they receive support from clusters through the organisation of international study visits, partnering and “matchmaking” missions.

The European Cluster Collaboration Platform supports the strategic cluster partnerships through dedicated services and tools, such as information pages , a specific ESCP-4i Forum aimed at facilitating the exchange across the partnerships, sharing of third country information on the International Cooperation pages, dedicated partnering events and webinars, and much more.