The European Commission (EC) will organise the EU – Canada Matchmaking Event in the context of ALL IN Event which will be held on 11-12 September 2024.

The EU – Canada Matchmaking Event itself will take place on-site in Montreal, Canada 10-12 September 2024.

The event will be jointly organised by the European Commission through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), in collaboration with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Government of Canada, Scale AI, and Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).

Who can Participate?

This invitation is addressed to SMEs interested in collaborating with Canadian counterparts in the following sectors:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Advanced manufacturing
• Digital Technology
• Quantum Technology

The organisers reserve the right to close the application process once the maximum capacity for participants is reached.

Deadlines

Expressions of interest to participate in this event must be submitted electronically by 28 May 2024, 23:59 Brussels time

Late applications arriving after 28 May could be accepted for participation if provided eligibility criteria are fulfilled by the participants and in case of still available places until 20 August 2024, 23:59 Brussels time

All expenses related to the participation of SMEs are at their own charge. No reimbursement of costs is offered.

Apply and submit your expression of interest as a Cluster here until 28 May 2024, 23:59 (first cut-off date) Brussels Time.

The EU – Canada Matchmaking Event will bring together cluster organisations and SMEs from the European Union (EU), non-EU countries participating in the Single Market Programme/COSME Strand, and Canada. It will provide participants an excellent chance to promote Cluster to Cluster (C2C), Cluster to Business (C2B), and Business to Business (B2B) collaborations.

The overall objective of the event is to promote the exchange of information and provide networking opportunities for European cluster organisations and their members with counterparts from Canada, particularly in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Advanced manufacturing, Digital Technology and Quantum Technology.

The objectives for the participants include:

• Strengthening EU-Canada cluster cooperation for the benefit of their members, including a seminar, a cluster matchmaking event, and site visits.
• Identifying potential areas of common interest for cooperation and synergies, in terms of the sectoral, value chain, and market focus of their SMEs and other companies.
• Improving, through clusters, the EU-Canada industry and academia-industry collaboration in research, development, and innovation. For its members, the clusters will identify possible areas of RDI collaboration (academia, research organisations, industries...).

The call for expressions of interest is being launched to identify a European delegation made up of representatives from cluster organisations (please see the Call for Expression of Interest) who are willing and committed to participate in the EU-Canada Matchmaking Event.

By submitting an expression of interest in response to this call, you are indicating your acceptance of the call's terms.

Further details about the event, the eligibility requirements, and how to submit an expression of interest can be found here.

This call is targeting only SMEs. A separate call exists for SMEs. So if you are a cluster organisation or a business network organisation you should respond to the call that is available here.