The European Commission (EC) will organise the EU – South MED Matchmaking Event in the frame of ACHEMA expo which will be held on 10-14 June 2024.

The EU – South MED Matchmaking Event itself will take place on-site in Frankfurt, Germany 11-13 June 2024.

The event will be jointly organised by the European Commission through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP), in collaboration with ANIMA Investment Network, as part of the Euromed Clusters Forward project, Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) and Chamber of Commerce and Industry Frankfurt am Main.

Who can Participate?

This invitation is addressed to small and medium-sized enterprises from EU (and non-EU countries participating in the Single Market Programme (SMP)/COSME Strand) countries interested in collaborating with South MED counterparts in the following sectors:

• Green techs and energy
• Digital techs and ICT
• Mechanical engineering and manufacturing
• Pharma and biotechs

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 25 April 2024, 23:59 Brussels time

Late applications arriving after 25 April could be accepted for participation if provided eligibility criteria are fulfilled by the participants and in case of still available places until 4 June 2024, 23:59 Brussels time at the latest.

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

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

Apply and submit your expression of interest as an SME here.

The EU – South MED 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 South MED countries: Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia. 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 Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia; particularly in the fields of Green techs and energy, Digital techs and ICT, Mechanical engineering and manufacturing, Pharma and biotechs.

The objectives for the participants include:

• Strengthening EU-South MED 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-South MED 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...).

This call for Expression of Interest is launched to identify small and medium-sized enterprises from EU (and non-EU countries participating in the Single Market Programme (SMP)/COSME Strand) countries (please see the Call for Expression of Interest) who are willing and committed to participate in the EU-South MED 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 small and medium-sized enterprises from EU (and non-EU countries participating in the Single Market Programme (SMP)/COSME Strand) countries. A separate call exists for cluster organisations and business network organisations. So, if you are a cluster organisation or a business network organisation you should respond to the call that is available here.