Monthly Archives: June 2021

The European Commission has granted EUR 3.5 million to ENRICH in Africa (EiA), a three-year Horizon 2020 project to create a network that strengthens and connects the EU and Africa innovation ecosystems. EiA will be building on the work and the numerous established tech hub linkages of the Africa Europe Innovation Partnership (AEIP), and will provide a wide variety of programmes, activities and services for entrepreneurs and the incubators and accelerators supporting them. Interested to discover the latest insights into the European and African innovation ecosystems? Subscribe to EiA Innovation Insights newsletter here.

Ready to explore other markets?

With our Soft – Landing programmes, European and Africa SMEs and start-ups dive deep into exciting new markets and ecosystems with EiA partners actively supporting their adaptation and growth internationally. Our holistic programmes provide a one – stop – shops for business support services including access to the local business networks, meeting potential investors, tailored trainings, and many more services.

Interested in having additional information, please click here.

CTA participated in the Global Innovation Summit, an event celebrated from the 18th to the 20th of May in a hybrid format from Austria and organised by Eureka with the collaboration of SFG and FFG. This summit, with over 3.000 participants, is an international event for innovative companies, researchers and funding experts that allows them to stablish contacts, share knowledge and develop new business ideas.

The Civil Engineering and Building Technical Officer, Carlos García, and the consultants José Díaz and Marta Macías presented the results of the European project INNOWWIDE at this event, in a session dedicated to talk about associations between the European Union (EU) and Latin America to promote innovation, organised by ENRICH.

Coordinated by CDTI, INNOWWIDE has funded 120 Viability Assesment Projects (VAPS) of innovative SMEs from Europe, in collaboration with technological providers from third countries.

Collaboration to innovate

Emerging markets, like the Latin American, offer huge opportunities to promote new products, services or processes based on innovative technologies. To compete there effectively, European companies, especially SMEs, need to develop alliances with the main innovation actors from these regions and better understand their context, their needs and the demands from the users. This contributes to guarantee acceptance and local success.   

The European project INNOWWIDE has shown to be an effective funding instrument in the internationalisation of SMEs from Europe and the creation of alliances with third countries. Over 1.000 SMEs from all over Europe have participated in two INNOWWIDE calls, and 120 received funds.  

Latin America represents 29% of the funded projects, with 428.000 euros. Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Mexico are the most popular target countries. Most funded projects of this region are from the energy, agriculture and environmental sectors.