Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
The Single Market Programme (SMP) covers the single market, competitiveness of enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises, the area of plants, animals, food and feed, and European statistics. Specifically, the programme brings together aspects in order to streamline, exploit synergies and provide a better flexible, transparent, simplified and agile framework to finance activities aiming at a well-functioning sustainable internal market.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
This action will support Ukrainian business integration in EU value chains and the development of cooperation projects and partnerships between European and Ukrainian clusters and business network organisations. It is based on the understanding that promoting clustering and strengthening and creating new cluster organisations in Ukraine are highly effective ways to facilitate economic competitiveness and industrial transition to the benefit of the entire value chain.
Detailed Call Description
Specific industrial ecosystems have been significantly affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are of particular importance for the reconstruction of Ukraine and have substantial potential for collaboration between European and Ukrainian cluster organisations and enterprises. Hence, proposals should be focused on only one of the industrial ecosystems listed below:
- Aerospace & Defence;
- Agri-Food;
- Construction;
- Digital;
- Electronics;
- Health;
- Mobility-Transport-Automotive;
- Renewable Energy.
The proposal shall address both specific objectives:
- Developing value chains interlinkages between EU and Ukrainian companies (networking): the objective is to connect EU and Ukrainian companies to strengthen ‘the value chains’ ability to cope with challenges and undergo green, digital and resilient transitions. The Partnerships will contribute to building resilience by mobilising different actors who have complementary and related assets and talents from the EU and Ukraine.
- Fostering the cluster capacity-building and the professionalisation of support for both EU and Ukrainian SMEs: the objective is to foster the capacity-building of EU and Ukrainian cluster organisations and to promote cross-cluster learning to help cluster managers, cluster organisations and their members acquire the necessary skills and take actions to explore and take up new solutions. This should include trainings along the value chain which will enhance cluster managers’ skills, develop, and implement a comprehensive portfolio of new services for companies, organise twinning and learning activities and provide adequate support for the possible implementation to foster cross-cluster learning.
To achieve the general and specific objectives set out above the Partnerships may undertake for example activities such as:
- Organising twinning, networking and learning activities and projects that aim at cooperation and capacity building. The activities can cover, amongst others, efforts to boost internationalisation, market research, foresight and trends analyses, mapping of joint activities, technology/knowledge transfer, and promote companies’ uptake of innovation, digitalisation, and resource-efficient and carbon neutral solutions. This can thus include, for instance workshops, study trips and training and education activities for cluster organisations, business network support organisations, SMEs and public authorities and innovation agencies working with clusters;
- Supporting the development of a comprehensive cluster strategy for the individual clusters, including activities to strengthen collaboration and partnership development along and across value-chains between the EU and Ukraine;
- Enhancing clusters’ capacities to provide high quality added-value support services for businesses, especially SMEs;
- Organising and implementing a mobility scheme for beneficiaries’ staff members. This shall cover promotion of the scheme, recruitment, matching and follow-up of short-term visits or exchanges for professionals.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
90%
Project budgets (maximum grant amount) are expected to be around €500.000 per project.
Thematic Categories
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
Eligibility for Participation
- Legal Entities
- Local Authorities
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
- non-EU countries:
- listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme (list of participating countries)
- be or be entitled to represent:
- a cluster organisation (have to be understood as the legal entities that support the strengthening of collaboration, networking and learning in innovation clusters and act as innovation support providers by providing or channelling specialised and customised business support services to stimulate innovation activities, especially in SMEs).
- business network organisations that manage joint activities, facilitate networking and provide or channel specialised and customised business support services to their members and related actors.
- other types of “support organisations” supporting green and digital transitions and build EU resilience from the country eligible under the Single Market Programme. These support organisations may include technology centres, research institutes, fab labs, (digital) innovation hubs, creative hubs, resource-efficiency service providers, incubators and accelerators, and public authorities at both regional or city/administration levels and innovation agencies.
Cluster organisations or cluster networks must be registered or have submitted a registration on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) by the submission deadline of this Call for proposals and provide the link to the completed cluster organisation profile for each applicant registered on the Platform (proof to be provided through Annex 5 to Part B – Eligibility Checklist and Ecosystem Selection)
Applicants cannot participate in several Partnerships under this call for proposals. If such a case is detected by the funding body, it will lead to the ineligibility and exclusion of the organisation concerned.
Consortium composition:
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium (Partnership) of at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with all the following conditions:
- minimum 3 independent legal entities from 3 different eligible countries;
- at least one beneficiary must be a cluster organisation established in the territory under the control of the Ukrainian government, at the submission of the proposal;
- at least one must be a cluster organisation established in an EU Member State.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry
Industry and Technology Service
1421, Nicosia, Cyprus
Email: sit@meci.gov.cy
Contact Person:
Spyros Triantaphyllidis
Telephone: 22867333
Email: striantafyllides@meci.gov.cy
EU Contact Point
For help related to this call, please contact: EISMEA-SMP-COSME-ENQUIRIES@ec.europa.eu