In particular, ELCA promotes international actions to strengthen cluster management excellence and facilitate exchanges, and strategic partnerships between clusters and specialised eco-systems across Europe. ELCA fosters the collaboration, networking and learning of cluster and business support organisations and their members towards the specialised and customised business support services provided and channelled to SMEs.

Therefore, ELCA works for innovation, driven by research, industry and SMEs, municipalities and their citizens and helps the acceleration of uptake of Best Available Technologies by taking initiatives on the European level, demonstrating, experimenting, sharing knowledge and communicating.

ELCA strongly promotes the participation of SMEs associated to its members in projects’ actions aimed at business development actions, internationalisation, and innovation and sustainability driven growth, through:

– services, for example the ongoing opportunity to partecipate in the extra-EU public procurement tenders under the EXTRA LIGHT project;

– lump sum travel vouchers for the participation in the short-term mobility program for proffesionals, within the EU ClusterXchange Scheme activated in the BRILLIANT and EPIX projects;

– economic support for the internationaization activities, in Europe and third countries like trade missions to Usa, Canada, UAE and Japan offered within the ELCA4i collaboration project, and many more.

ELCA’s active projects:

EPIX – Eco-system Partnership for Interclusters and smart cities eXchanges, EU COSME Programme
ICBUILD – Boosting the internationalisation for circularity in the building environment, EU COSME Programme
EXTRA LIGHT – Bolstering European lighting SMEs participation in public procurement extra-EU, EU COSME Programme
ELCA4i – European Lighting Cluster Alliance for Internationalization, EU COSME Programme
BRILLIANT – Boosting excellence in the European lighting value chain, EU COSME Programme
ECOSLIGHT – Environmentally conscious smart lighting, Erasmus+ Programme
CULTURE LIGHTS – Bridging sustainable lighting and value preservation in cultural buildings, Erasmus+ Programme

ELCA’s completed projects:

CYBER SECURE LIGHT – Cyber Secure IoT Lighting and Home Automation systems for Smart Building, EU COSME Programme