Participants

Interested participants must have their ‘permanent residence’ in a COSME participating country to participate in ClusterXchange. ‘Permanent residence’ is defined by ClusterXchange as:

• The place where the organisation of the applicant is registered;
• If an organisation has several registered establishments in different COSME participating countries, the participant should choose the country where he/she is based as his/her permanent residence.

Participation in ClusterXchange is not based on nationality or legal residence, therefore holding a specific nationality or legal residence status does not grant nor deny an applicant the right to participate.

As regards to third country nationals: representatives of eligible organisations who are not nationals of a COSME participating country can participate in the programme provided that they have spent 183 days in a COSME participating country with a residence permit or equivalent document that allows them to reside in the country, and that they have started or have the intention to start a business in a COSME participating country. If this condition is not fulfilled, they cannot participate in ClusterXchange.

Visiting Organisations

Eligible Visiting Organisations for transnational exchanges are: 

• Cluster organisations and similar business network organisations;
• Scaling-up support organisations (such as tech centres, research institutes, [digital] innovation hubs, fab labs, creative hubs, resource-efficiency service providers, incubators, accelerators) that are cluster members;
• Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are cluster members.

Host Organisations

Eligible Host Organisations are:

• Cluster organisations and similar business network organisations;
• Scaling-up support organisations (such as tech centres, research institutes, [digital] innovation hubs, fab labs, creative hubs, resource-efficiency service providers, incubators, accelerators) that are cluster members;
• Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are cluster members.

In addition, the following are eligible to participate in ClusterXchange only as a Host Organisation:

• Training providers from a COSME participating country that are cluster members;
• Large companies from a COSME participating country that are cluster members;
• Public authorities at both regional and city/administration levels that are active in a cluster from a COSME participating country.

Steps for participation

Eligible participants interested in taking part in the ClusterXchange scheme as visiting or host organisations should express their interests to the European Cluster Partnerships | Excellence. This can be done by contacting them directly or by applying to their published exchange opportunities. Interested organisations can also contact the CXC Support Office for more information.

1. Login and exchange draft creation

A. Make sure that all interested participants have a published profile on the ECCP Portal. For any questions regarding this, please consult the ECCP FAQs, or contact contact [at] clustercollaboration.eu

B. Once the participants have contacted the Partnership of their choice and have agreed on partaking in an exchange, they may proceed with the basic exchange specifications (dates, duration, location). If all parties agree to the preliminary plans, their Partnerships can create an exchange draft on the CXC IT Tool.

C. The CXC IT Tool is only accessible to Partnership administration members. It is their responsibility to log in all information related to the Visiting and Host Organisations, as well as the exchange. Once the exchange name has been encoded in the CXC IT Tool, an exchange draft will be automatically saved.

2. Exchange Preparation

D. This stage consists of the creation and signature of all relevant exchange documents: the Commitment to Quality Report and the Financial Agreement. 

E. The Commitment to Quality Report (CtQ) is the document that binds the exchange parties to execute a quality exchange. This document must contain the Exchange Objectives, the Agenda and the Expected Outcomes. It must be signed by all exchange parties (the Visiting and Host Organisation, as well as their respective Partnerships). 

F. Since Visiting Organisations may benefit from financial assistance in the form of a lump sum, they must sign a Financial Agreement (FA) with their Partnerships in order to formalise this collaboration.

G. Both documents must be uploaded to the CXC IT Tool in order for the exchange to be executed.

3. Exchange Execution

H.  This is when the exchange takes place. An exchange must be longer than 3 and shorter than 30 consecutive days.

I. Typical exchanges entail: shadowing, joint market research, trainings, networking, event attendance, etc. 

J. If any issue arises, the organisations may contact their respective Partnerships or the CXC Support Office (clusterxchange [at] clustercollaboration.eu) at any point during the exchange.

4. Exchange finalisation

K. Once your exchange has taken place, you will have to complete a brief closing report (Final Activity Report) and share it with the Partnerships.

L. Visiting organisations will receive the financial assistance for the exchange upon completing this report and providing relevant evidence (e.g. travel invoices, boarding passes) that the exchange has taken place to their Partnership contact point.