Two of the world’s leading sports technology clusters – the Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) and Dutch-based cluster Sports & Technology (S&T) – have today announced a partnership to strengthen connections into their reciprocal Asia-Pacific and European markets.
Leveraging off the back of outstanding sporting reputations, sports participation and culture, S&T and ASTN have been leaders in stimulating sports technology innovation and business acceleration in their local economies.  

S&T, and some of its members, are currently in Australia as part of a larger economic delegation associated with the visit of King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima of The Netherlands. 
The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ASTN and S&T took place on November 1st 2016 at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra in the presence of Lilianne Ploumen, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.
The MoU aims to strengthen support on market intelligence, improve market entry opportunities for their members and explore other bi-lateral industry development  and innovation opportunities.                                                                       
“The ASTN has a mandate to improve the international connectedness of our industry, and assist Australian sports technology businesses get into global markets. A partnership with S&T is a natural fit for the ASTN.”  said Mr Craig Hill, Executive Director, of the ASTN.
“We originally reached out to the ASTN around 12 months ago, and the partnership acknowledges the leadership role that each cluster plays in building an innovation eco-system in sport.”  said Mr Rene Wijlens, Cluster Manager of S&T and Executive Director of the European Platform for Sports Innovation (EPSI).  “Cluster Sports & Technology thrives for collaboration between sports innovation clusters and as such is involved in the EU4Sports cluster alliance project (ESCP4-i project, supported by EU, DG Growth, see http://epsi.eu/activities/projects/eu4sportsclusteralliance )” 
The ASTN, S&T and their members made valuable contributions to The Netherlands sports delegation program in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne during the week of 31st October.