The European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI) and the Morocco TraIndustry Cluster (MTI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding at InnoTrans 2026, establishing a framework for long-term cooperation between the European and Moroccan railway ecosystems.
The signing takes place on the opening day of InnoTrans, the world’s leading trade fair for transport technology, whose 2026 edition is itself framed around “Mobility on a global scale – shaping projects and growth opportunities”. InnoTrans 2026 runs from 22 to 25 September in Berlin.
For ERCI, the agreement is more than an internationalisation initiative. It reflects the evolution of the organisation’s role as the European meta-cluster of the railway sector: connecting territorial railway ecosystems across Europe and increasingly creating structured bridges with peer organisations outside Europe to make innovation capabilities, industrial needs and cooperation opportunities accessible across borders.
Connecting ecosystems to turn innovation into cooperation
The new framework responds to a common interest of ERCI and MTI in strengthening links between the Moroccan, African and European railway ecosystems, while facilitating exchange of expertise, open innovation and new cooperation opportunities.
This is particularly relevant at a time when innovation in rail increasingly depends on the ability to connect different parts of the value chain: operators and infrastructure managers, industrial companies, technology providers, SMEs and start-ups, universities and research organisations.
Under the MoU, ERCI and MTI intend to cooperate across a broad range of areas, including:
- innovation and R&D, including innovation challenges, experimentation and technology demonstrators;
- connections between companies and start-ups, industrial and technology partnerships and support for SME internationalisation;
- skills and knowledge development, involving universities, research centres, technical workshops and exchanges;
- sustainable mobility and digital transformation, including AI, data, connected systems, cybersecurity, predictive maintenance, energy efficiency and circularity;
- joint projects and funding opportunities; and
- international promotion, including mutual participation in trade fairs, business missions and events.
The Memorandum therefore provides a platform from which individual initiatives can subsequently be developed, with the possibility of establishing a joint action plan identifying priorities, expected results, responsibilities and monitoring indicators.
“A meta-cluster should make ecosystems accessible to one another”
Veronica Elena Bocci, Vice-President of ERCI, commented:
“For ERCI, internationalisation is not simply about taking European companies to another market. The added value of a meta-cluster is to make ecosystems accessible to one another: to connect needs with capabilities, companies with partners, and railway challenges with innovations that may have originated somewhere else.”
“This agreement is particularly meaningful because both ERCI and MTI work through an ecosystem approach. It gives us the opportunity to connect the innovation capacity of the European railway value chain – including its many specialised SMEs – with a rapidly developing Moroccan railway ecosystem, while also exploring opportunities for wider cooperation between Europe and Africa.”
“The objective is therefore not another MoU on a shelf. It is to create the conditions from which concrete projects, technology partnerships, business opportunities, skills exchanges and joint innovation activities can emerge.”
From bilateral agreements to an international ecosystem network
The agreement with MTI is also part of a broader direction pursued by ERCI: developing reciprocal, structured relationships with strong railway organisations outside Europe, while maintaining its European clusters and their companies as the starting point.
In the United States, ERCI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association (REMSA) in June 2026. The agreement provides for cooperation between European and US transport and railway organisations and for joint participation and representation at seminars, conferences and exhibitions on both sides of the Atlantic. ERCI’s own objectives under that agreement explicitly include promoting B2B opportunities, exploring international opportunities and supporting rail, transport and logistics innovation.
In Canada, ERCI and TRACCS Transit and Rail have established in June 2026 a cooperation framework centred on international networking, innovation, market development, knowledge exchange and long-term partnerships between their respective members. It specifically foresees recurring initiatives, delegation visits, conferences, trade fairs, business missions and further cooperation between Canadian and European rail stakeholders. That cooperation has already moved from framework to implementation, with the first joint European appearance at TRACCS Rail Day in Canada in 2026, with a delegation of 15 companies from the ERCI network, eight of them exhibiting at a shared booth.
Taken together, these partnerships illustrate a common approach: ERCI acts as the European gateway between regional railway innovation ecosystems and selected international counterparts, creating reciprocal channels through which companies, technologies, knowledge and cooperation opportunities can move in both directions.
The new cooperation with Morocco adds an important Europe–North Africa dimension to this emerging network.
About Morocco TraIndustry Cluster
Morocco TraIndustry Cluster (MTI) was established to promote innovation and strengthen the development of Morocco’s railway industrial ecosystem, connecting public and private operators and supporting the development of a more technology-intensive national value chain with international ambitions.
Website: https://clustermti.ma/en/home-en/
