The European Commission (EC) will organise the EU – India Matchmaking Event in the context of the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2024 which will be held on 19-21 November 2024.

The EU – India Matchmaking Event itself will take place on-site in Bangaluru, India 19-21 November 2024.

The event will be jointly organised by the European Commission through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), in collaboration with the Global Business Inroads the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) partner and Government of Karnataka, Department of Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology.

Who can Participate?

This invitation is addressed to SMEs interested in collaborating with Indian counterparts in the following sectors:

• Biotech
• Digital
• Green Tech
• Advanced Manufacturing

The organisers reserve the right to close the application process once the maximum capacity for participants is reached.

Deadlines

Expressions of interest should be submitted

by 16 July (Tuesday) 2024, 23:59 Brussels time – first cut-off date;

20 August (Tuesday) 2024, 23:59 Brussels time – second cut-off date;

17 September (Tuesday) 2024, 23:59 Brussels time – third cut-off date

Late applications after 17 September could be accepted for participation if provided eligibility criteria are fulfilled by the participants until 8 November 2024, 23:59 Brussels time.

All expenses related to the participation of SMEs are at their own charge. No reimbursement of costs is offered.

Please ensure that you submit full, accurate, and up-to-date information and contact information.

Apply and submit your expression of interest as SME here until 16 July 2024 (Tuesday), 23:59 (first cut-off date) Brussels Time.

The EU – India 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 India. 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 India, particularly in the fields of Biotech, Digital, Green Tech and Advanced Manufacturing.

The objectives for the participants include:

• Strengthening EU-India 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-India 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 SMEs (please see the Call for Expression of Interest) who are willing and committed to participate in the EU-India Matchmaking Event.

By submitting an expression of interest in response to this call, you indicate 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 SMEs. A separate call exists for Clusters. So if you are a cluster organisation or a business network organisation you should respond to the call that is available here.