The European Commission has selected 24 “European Strategic Cluster Partnerships – Going International” as a result of the COSME call “Cluster Go International” (COS-CLUSTER-2014-3-03):
- including the 15 co-funded projects resulting from the call “Clusters Go International” and
- 9 additional “voluntary” Partnerships that were on the reserve list of the call and accepted to keep working on joint cooperation agenda without EC direct co-funding.
The ERCI project proposal PERES (Promoting European Rail Excellence outside EU) was submitted to the COSME – CLUSTER GO INTERNATIONAL call for proposals and is now listed as ESCP-4i voluntary partnership for the following 18 months.
The ESCP-4i are transnational cluster partnerships that develop and implement a joint internationalization strategy and support SME internationalization towards third countries beyond Europe. They aim to develop common actions and an implementation roadmap as part of a long-term cooperation agenda.
ERCI partner DITECFER is coordinating the project and 6 more Partners of ERCI are included (i-Trans, Rail Alliance, BTS Bahntechnik Sachsen, Poludniowy Klaster Kolejowy – Southern Railway Cluster, Railgrup, Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie, CNA Cluster Bahntechnik Bavaria) . Targeted third countries for PERES are Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Iran, Mexico, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and United States.
The aim of PERES is to offer SMEs the opportunity to strengthen their development capabilities and to become actively involved at European level in international innovation and value creation processes. Participation in the project will facilitate access to international markets for SMEs in the mobility sector.
Results expected:
Thanks to the ESCP-4i, the PERES Partnership (since on the reserve list) expects to:
- capitalize on mutual exchange of practices and information with the other ESCPs
- learn how to improve our Clusters’ approach to any international promotional activity
- identify emerging value of chains able to increase our SMEs excellence thanks to the cluster collaboration
- participate in international cluster matchmaking events organised by DG GROWTH of the European Commission and in any possible similar activity.
