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.
European Lighting Cluster Alliance strongly promotes the participation of SMEs associated with its cluster members in projects’ actions aimed at business development actions, internationalisation, innovation and sustainability-driven growth, through:
- Customized and specialized services, for example, the ongoing opportunity to participate in the extra-EU public procurement tenders under the EXTRA LIGHT project;
- Lump sum travel vouchers for participation in Hackathon international events or short-term mobility programs, for example within the EU ClusterXchange Scheme activated in the EPIX project;
- Economic support for internationalization activities, in the EU and extra-EU markets, through trade missions to Canada, India and Brazil offered within the ICBUILD project;
- Financial support (cascade funding) for talent placement services, adoption of advanced technologies to support SMEs in digitising their business operations, driving their circular transition enhancing connections with technology ecosystems under the SILEO Eurocluster Open Calls, and many more.
