The mission to the UAE was the first mission that took place within the project EU KETs4DUAL-USE 2.0, bringing 8 companies to the UAE to meet potential stakeholders and partners. The mission to the UAE took place from February 20th - February 24th 2023 and was prepared by the KETs4DUAL-USE 2.0 consortium together with the dedicated mission advisor and consultant TTE Gulf.

The mission began with a meeting with TTE Gulf in Dubai, where they gave a presentation of business practices in the UAE and cultural differences between the UAE and Europe which allowed the companies to feel ready for their B2B meetings. TTE Gulf also organised a program for the delegation with individual B2B meetings for the 8 participating companies during the stay.

In addition to the individual B2B meetings the delegation participated in the IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi. This event takes place every two years and brings together over 130 000 visitors from 65 countries and over 1350 exhibitors. Here the delegation also met with the Estonian delegation and enjoyed a guided visit of the Estonian pavilion.

The companies selected for the mission to the UAE were very much engaged towards the success of the mission. The companies prepared for the mission with both individual meetings and webinars, as well as looked for potential partners and additional B2B meetings in addition to the ones scheduled by the consultants. All of this ensured the best possible opportunities during the mission to meet national counterparts and potential collaboration partner and thereby helping the European companies to expend their business internationally.

In total, three business missions are developed during the first 6-months of 2023, and the second one will take place in Singapore during 20-24 March and the third one in Canada during 29 May-2 June.

The consortium consists of five partners: the French clusters (poles de compétitivité) OPTITEC as the coordinator, Minalogic and SAFE Cluster together with the defense and security cluster Center for Defence, Space & Security (CenSec) (Denmark) and Estonian Defence Industry Association (EDIA).

The EU KETs4DUAL-USE 2.0, a 24-month project, is funded under the COSME Go International call in the defence and security sector, with the objective of intensifying collaboration across borders between defence and security and high-tech industrial clusters, in order to develop and implement joint internationalisation strategies in the area of dual use technologies, products and services towards non-EU countries.