AEI Tèxtils, the Catalan advanced textile materials’ cluster, has participated in several meetings this month to discuss and plan different activities and services for supporting its members in going international.

Internationalization is key area of the cluster revised strategy addressing two major objectives: increasing the competitiveness of its members with facilitated access to third country markets and increasing visibility of its members at international level thanks to the cluster participation in key events, both in Europe and internationally.

AEI Tèxtils is involved in several strategic projects addressing internationalization at different levels:

·      ADMANTEX2i aims to lead international cluster cooperation in advanced manufacturing and advanced textile materials as an enabler for globally competitive sustainable products in a broad range of high-end applications. Target markets include North America and Asia, with the organization of 3 business missions in the next 2 years.

·       TEXGLOBAL supports the growth, the competitiveness and industrial modernization of European textile companies in long run by enhancing its innovation capacity. Target markets include North America, Mexico and Vietnam, with business missions next year.

·       CLAMTEX aims to foster cross-border collaboration and the uptake of advanced manufacturing technologies within the textile sector. A key element is the promotion and financial support of “exchanges” within Europe, facilitating travel vouchers for cluster members to participate at intra-EU business missions.

·      GALACTICA aims to boost cross-sectoral innovation among textile, aeronautics/aerospace and advanced manufacturing. In order to get to know each sector, a series of learning expeditions within Europe, to learn on innovation ecosystems, have been organized.

On October 7^th and 8^th, CLAMTEX consortium met in Nantes to discuss joint opportunities for organizing intra-EU missions. AEI Tèxtils is now organizing a dedicated digitalization mission to Portugal for next month together with the Portuguese Textile Cluster.

On October 13^th TEXGLOBAL partnership met in Portugal to discuss and plan next year business missions to Mexico (March 22) and Vietnam (September 22). Later this year, AEI Tèxtils together with ATEVAL will organize a dedicated webinar to present the business mission to Mexico and its agenda, the market opportunities and the market study developed, the set of services that will be implemented to make it successful as well as a Q&A section with a market expert.

Lastly, on October 14^th and 15^th, AEI Tèxtils met its partners from ADMANTEX2i project, coordinated by the cluster, also in Portugal. During the meeting, the next steps in the support services for its members in going international to North America and Canada, as well as in Japan, were planned. In the coming weeks, the specific market segments within those countries will be defined and the market studies will be developed prior to the business missions.

The different projects aim to support SMEs in identifying and exploiting growth opportunities worldwide through activities such as partnering missions, matchmaking events, cross-partnership webinars, circular economy business models, digitalization driver and cross-cultural approach, and lessons in building industrial resilience.

In the coming weeks, the cluster will meet its partners in GALACTICA in Athens to discuss about the next call for proposals (expected by early 2022) and will host in Terrassa the 2^nd Galactica Hackathon and a GALACTICA learning expedition with participants from across Europe that will be able to network with its members.