The EU – Canada Matchmaking Event itself will take place on-site in Montreal, Canada 10-12 September 2024.

The event will be jointly organised by the European Commission through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), in collaboration with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Government of Canada, Scale AI, and Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).

The EU – Canada 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 Canada. It will provide participants an excellent chance to promote Cluster to Cluster (C2C), Cluster to Business (C2B), and Business to Business (B2B) collaborations.

Objectives

• Strengthening EU-Canada 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-Canada industry and academia-industry collaboration in research, development, and innovation. For their members, the clusters will identify possible areas of RDI collaboration (academia, research organisations, industries…, etc.).

Agenda and Activities

The EU – Canada Matchmaking Event will include the following activities:

• Preparatory Webinar – an opportunity to receive information on undertaking business with Canada and guidance on how to participate successfully in the planned event. (date tbc)
• Technical Webinar – a session helping future participants of the matchmaking event to make the most of their profiling in the B2Match tool and explain the procedures to optimise the booking of meetings. (date tbc)
• Site visits (10 September 2024)
• Seminar on knowledge exchange to foster EU- Canada cooperation. (10 September 2024)
• Pitching and Matchmaking meetings between cluster organisations and SMEs from EU (and non-EU countries participating in SMP/COSME Strand) countries and Canada Countries. (10 September 2024)
• Debriefing session to collect feedback and testimonials from cluster participants. (10 September 2024)
• Participation at the ALL IN Event – 11 – 12 September 2024

Focus areas

• Artificial Intelligence
• Advanced manufacturing
• Digital Technology
• Quantum Technology

Call for Expression of Interest

This Calls for Expression of Interest is targeting cluster organisations and small and medium-sized enterprises from EU (and non-EU countries participating in the Single Market Programme (SMP)/COSME Strand) countries who wish to participate, which are now open.

Expressions of interest to participate in this event must be submitted electronically by 28 May (Tuesday) 2024, 23:59 Brussels time

 📕Call for Expression of Interest - Clusters deadline first cut-off date 28 May 2024 – Apply now

 📕Call for Expression of Interest - SMEs deadline 28 May 2024 – Apply Now

Late applications could be accepted for participation if eligibility criteria are fulfilled and costs are borne by the participants. Late applications are accepted until 20 August (Tuesday) 2024, 23:59 Brussels time at the latest.

Looking back at past missions to Canada

The European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) organised the EU-Canada Cluster Matchmaking Event in 2019 in cooperation with the Canadian Superclusters initiative in Toronto, Canada. The overall objective of the event was to foster collaboration between European and Canadian clusters for the benefit of their SME members. This event was designed as a follow-up of the High-Level Cluster Event organised in April 2019 at the Hannover fair, where cooperation between European and Canadian clusters have been initiated.

The highlight of the event took place on the 6^th of June 2019 with the signing of an administrative arrangement between Canada and the EU to facilitate trans-Atlantic cluster collaboration.  The signature was witnessed by Elżbieta Bieńkowska, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises and the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Under the arrangement, cluster organisations and firms in the European Union will have more opportunities to form strategic business partnerships and linkages, notably with Canada’s five innovation superclusters. The matchmaking sessions allowed for fruitful exchanges between European and Canadian delegates and over 100 meetings were scheduled between European and Canadian counterparts on the afternoon of the event.  

The main EU delegation was composed of some 27 clusters along with some companies covering 16 European countries from the EU and countries participating in the COSME programme (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine) along with several representatives of the five Canadian Superclusters (Protein Industries, Ocean Industries, Digital Technology, Advanced Manufacturing and SCALE.AI) and a dozen other Canadian clusters, chambers and business networks and local economic development agencies. A total of almost 100 attended the morning session of the event. Read more information here.