Two Years of Success: EXCITE Project drives closer Collaboration across European Ecosystems with nearly 100 ClusterXchanges

Submitted by Nadja Dehne on 26 March 2024

The EXCITE project started February 1st, 2022, with the mission to connect European ecosystems, their industries, research, networks and skills even closer. After two years, a lot has been facilitated between the participating cluster partners and different European ecosystems including almost 100 ClusterXchanges.

✅ support of 98 Cluster exchanges (incl. 71 SMEs) with matchmaking opportunities

✅ exchanges between the participating clusters on their ecosystems, cluster best practices & services

✅ execution of learning tandems e.g. on digital tools & digital transformation or cluster excellence management & leadership skills between the clusters to improve services or add new ones

✅ Creation of catalogue with online training opportunities for cluster managers

About the project

EXCITE aims to strengthen cluster management and facilitate exchange and strategic partnership between cluster staff and cluster members by using the ClusterXchange system. ClusterXchange is a new pilot project to promote short-term exchanges to better connect industrial ecosystems in Europe. The project will focus on skills, processes and services related to digital transformation - both in terms of the cluster organisation itself and its members, to be able to support them in successfully accessing global markets.

Cluster Exchanges & Study visits

The two-year project EXCITE is focused on facilitating exchanges between SMEs and other European organisations. For that, six European clusters joined forces to organize financially supported company missions with pre-arranged B2B meetings to innovative digital ecosystems in Europe. During the two year project span, EXCITE supported on SME going to:

France for the Smart Mobility Mission to Sophia Antipolis, 11.-14.10.2022
Germany for a B2B Matchmaking Mission to SEMICON Europa in Munich, 15.-17.11.2022
Germany for a French Automotive CXC Mission, 29.11.-01.12.2022
Spain for Portuguese stakeholder to the Basque Country, 30.01. – 02.02.2023
Spain for DTI Mission from Bulgarian companies to Barcelona, 27.02. – 03.02.2023
Belgium for the apc|m & SSI conference in Bruges, 28. – 30.03.2023
Germany for the Silicon Saxony Day in Dresden, 20. - 22.06.2023
Austria for the Business trip “Flexible Electronics - Fascination with a Future”, Graz and Weiz, 26 - 30.06.2023
Austria for a mission to Silicon Alps and their conference EBSCON, 11.- 13.10.2023
Spain for the Basque Open Industry event in San Sebastian, 13.11. – 15.11. 2023
Germany for SEMICON Europa in Munich, 14. – 17.11.2023
Poland for a mission to MCICT in Warsaw, 29 – 31.01.2024

Furthermore, five so called study visits have been organized to the project partners’ cluster ecosystems. During the project, the consortium visited Sofia in Bulgaria, Sophia Antipolis in France, Dresden in Germany, San Sebastian and Bilbao in Spain as well as Warsaw in Poland to exchange on cluster best practises.

Testimonials

“We are really happy to be here. [..] As a CEO of an SME, this is a great place to meet other companies, to meet other clusters. I got really inspired by the things that are happening here in Sophia Antipolis. I wasn't even aware of how much is happening here around smart mobility. [..] Very inspiring and I can advise other companies, other SMEs from other clusters to come to this region.”

Daniel Hekman, CEO & Co-Founder of Score Digital from Poland and participant of CXC Smart Mobility Mission to Sophia-Antipolis, hosted by SCS cluster.
>>Watch the video testimonial now!

„Generic Soft's participation at the Silicon Saxony conference was immensely beneficial. It allowed us to network with key industry players, gain insights into cutting-edge IT trends, and increase our company's visibility. The event stimulated growth, spurred innovative thinking in our team, and contributed to refining our strategies, helping us stay ahead in the competitive software industry. Engaging with an innovative community of tech enthusiasts, we dived deep into exciting new advancements, shared our unique perspectives, and learned much from the best in the industry.“

Stefan Vadev, Co-Founder & CTO of Generic Soft from Bulgaria and participant of the CXC mission to Dresden, hosted by Silicon Saxony in June 2023.

See more testimonials here.

Public deliverables

Various reports and deliverables were compiled during the project, which are publicly accessible. Below you will find the documents sorted by work package.

Project Management and monitoring

D1.3 Initial Monitoring Scoreboard
D1.4 Initial Report on Collection of Best Practices
D1.5 Updated Report on Collection of Best Practices

Capacity building: Skills

D2.2 Catalogue on available online modules
D2.4 Upskilling/Reskilling plan with regard to Digital Transformation and related to SME members of the clusters

Capacity building: Service at the level of single cluster organisation

D3.3 Pilot report and improvement actions for each tested service

Capacity building: Joint services

D4.1 Report on cooperation opportunities
D4.3 Report on upskilling and reskilling opportunities on the level of EXCITE partnership
D4.4 Roadmap for implementation of joint services

Joint collaboration activities

D5.1 Report on Study Visits
D5.2 Matchmaking event 1
D5.3 Webinars on Strategic cooperation
D5.5 Matchmaking event 2
D5.6 Matchmaking event 3
D5.7 Matchmaking event 4
D5.8 Matchmaking event 5

Implementation of the ClusterXchange scheme

D6.1 EXCITE informative Webinars and Local events
D6.2 EXCITEXchange implementation report
D6.3 EXCITEX CXC final report