EU4Sports

Submitted by Alina Danieles… on 21 July 2016

Innovation in the European Sports Sector

EU4SportsClusters is a project co-financed by the European Commission whose aim is to facilitate the internationalisation of European SMEs dedicated to sports using clusters as a tool. It does not only focuses on top sports, but also on mass-market sports practitioners.

The strength and dynamics of SME's strongly depend on their ability to draw from the best available knowledge and to become globally competitive. Therefore, international cooperation at all levels (research, knowledge transfer, production, market access, financing) is crucial and represents a key challenge for clusters.

News:

Much has been going on in the EU4Sports Clusters - we would like to present you the latest developments

Please download the following reports for detailed information:

EU4SC Final Event Report

EU4SC post Final Event Report

3rd ICST to Catalonia

Russia Pilot Mission

Your company works in the sports sector? You want to learn more about how to go international? Check out the results of the EU4SportsClusters project

The EU4SportsClusters project, co-financed by the European Commission, coordinated by the Catalan agency to make Catalan enterprises more competitive (ACCIÓ) and involving three European sports clusters InnosportNL (the Netherlands), Indescat (Catalonia, Spain) and Sporaltec (Rhône-Alpes, France), will present their findings in a final workshop in Brussels on the 11th of December.

The final workshop will summarize the main conclusions drawn from the EU4SportsClusters project which had the overall aim of supporting the internationalisation of European sports companies using clusters as a tool. During the past two years, the project has developed a number of activities articulated around two broad blocs of activities, one intended to build trust amongst participant clusters and another directed at carrying out pilot missions abroad. In order for the clusters to get to know each other, identify complementarities and create bonds of trust, three in-depth and on-site visits were organised to each cluster, an individual benchmarking exercise was performed (the Bronze Label issued by the ESCA) and a benchmarking trip to a very experienced cluster in terms of internationalisation, the Swedish FPX cluster, was carried out.

On a more practical sphere, two pilot missions abroad took place in Brazil and Russia involving a significant number of companies and sowing the seeds to concrete results, namely thanks to a specially designed methodology developed within the project.

The workshop will be opened by Hélène Dage, Deputy Head of SMEs: Clusters and Emerging Industries of the European Commission, and Ana Coelho, Director of EU Delegation of ACCIÓ. During the event, cluster managers, companies and policy makers will share their experiences and introduce the main conclusions of the project.

To kick-off, Alberto Bichi, Secretary General of FESI will give an overview of the sports industry in Europe and its relevance in economic terms, after which the project main results and conclusions will be presented.. Following the sessions devoted to the project a panel discussion entitled "Clusters and Internationalisation: The way ahead" will tackle the issue of cluster internationalisation from a broader perspective. The closing speech will be given by Alberto Pezzi, Coordinator of EU4SportsClusters project..

The EU4SportsClusters final conclusions

One of the key achievements of the EU4SportsClusters project is the developed and tested internationalization methodology through clusters which has proven to be a very suitable methodology for joint internationalization in terms of satisfaction and results.

The participant clusters agree on the need to define a common European Sports Cluster Strategy with a specific joint internationalization strategy. This strategy will be developed through the European Platform for Sports Innovation(EPSI) by a group of clusters set up as European Sports Cluster Partnership (ESCP).

In summary, the EU4SportsClusters project has been the cornerstone initiative upon which strengthened collaboration between European Sports clusters will be further pursued.

December, 2013

More information: www.acc10.cat/ACC1O/cat/; www.indescat.org; www.innosport.nl; www.sporaltec.fr

EU4SportsClusters Final Conference, December 11-12 in Brussels

EU4SportsClusters is a project co-financed by the European Commission whose aim is to facilitate the internationalisation of European SMEs dedicated to sports using clusters as a tool. It does not only focuses on top sports, but also on mass-market sports practitioners. The strength and dynamics of SME’s strongly depend on their ability to draw from the best available knowledge and to become globally competitive. Therefore, international cooperation at all levels (research, knowledge transfer, production, market access, financing) is crucial and represents a key challenge for clusters. The EU4SportsClusters project will be holding its final conference the forthcoming 10th and 11th December 2013 at ACCIÓ Delegation to the EU in Brussels (Rue de la Loi, 227) and we are pleased to invite you to attend the event to share your experiences with us. Please kindly fill in the registration form to confirm your attendance and kindly download the agenda. The registration will be open until the 3rd December 2013. We look forward to welcoming you in Brussels, The EU4SportsClusters team For further information please kindly contact: Ms. Paulien Kok: paulien.kok [at] innosport.nl Ms. Emma Vendrell: emma.vendrell [at] gencat.cat

Documents:

Project Summary

EU4Sports Clusters Interationalization Booklet

Internal Study Trip to InnosportNL

Conclusions of the internationalisation working group

EU4S Benchmarking Tour to Sweden

Brazil Mission Report

EU4SC Final Event Report

EU4SC post Final Event Report

3rd ICST to Catalonia

Russia Pilot Mission