February 16th, 2022
The project F2F Health Matters launched its first call to support the internationalisation actions of SMEs to Canada – the first target country selected by the project consortium. It gives the European SMEs in healthy food and bio-based value chains a unique opportunity to expand their business to this oversea market and to start new internationalisation journey.

Three types of internationalisation support
SMEs can apply to benefit from three types of internationalisation support. Commercial Lead Support covers the consultancy services of commercial prospection on Canadian market. SMEs can get personalised support from external service providers with excellent market knowledge, which will be financed by the consortium partners.
The second type of support SMEs can apply for includes Travel Aid to support their participation in a collective internationalisation mission to Canada organised within this project. SMEs can reimburse their travel costs up to EUR 2 000 and meet potential business partners, leading to new business agreements and promising collaborations.
Complementary to the financial types of support, SMEs can become part of the Elite Programme, which consists of tailor-made training and coaching on technical, innovation and market-oriented topics and provides access to an online community to skill up on various internationalisation topics.

How to apply
SMEs can apply by submitting the online application form by April 14th, 2022. All applications will be carefully assessed and the selection will lead to the creation of the SMEs cohort. The whole procedure will be finalised by the beginning of May 2022, followed by specialised training sessions and personalised consultancy services to selected SMEs. The internationalisation mission to Canada is planned for November 2022.
All information about the call and application and selection process can be found on the project website in GET INVOLVED session.

______________________
The European project F2F Health Matters is an internationalisation accelerator for innovative agri-food SMEs. It is driven by an alliance of five European clusters: Wagralim (Belgium), Clusaga (Spain), Bioeconomy Cluster (Slovakia), InovCluster (Portugal) and Valorial (France). It is funded by the European Programme for the Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) within the framework of the European Strategic Cluster Partnerships - Going International (ESCP-4i).