30 European SMEs supported, 230+ B2B meetings arranged, 4 international trade missions, 6 blue growth sectors, 300+ additional SMEs benefitted, 40+ assisted events; these are the impressive figures coming out of the Space2Waves project as it comes to a close after 24 months. These results are especially welcome given the challenge of developing and implementing an internationalisation programme for European SMEs during the worldwide Covid pandemic!
The Space2Waves project has successfully connected the 30 selected European SMEs offering innovative Earth Observation technologies and services with 230+ SMEs, universities, national and regional authorities, government departments, multinational organisations, business clusters, innovation hubs and research networks across the four target markets of Australia, Canada, South Africa and the UAE.
The project team was forced to creatively adapt its planned activities and develop new ways to support the SMEs in an online capacity as a result of the pandemic. Over 300 additional SMEs interacted with the project benefitting from the over 40 training sessions, webinars on the various markets and Blue Growth sectors and matchmaking and other activities during the two year project. An encouraging spin-off has been a number of collaborations between the 30 supported SMEs to develop products and services together and in some cases the formation of consortiums to tackle joint projects in the target countries.
Space2Waves partners organised and accompanied the selected SMEs on Trade Missions to the UAE, to coincide with Water Week; Canada, to visit the H2O Conference; Australia to meet with various agencies and a virtual matchmaking event for the South African market. Details and reports from the trade missions can be viewed here.
Commenting on the programme, LS Engineering from Portugal commented, “We were very pleased to participate in Space2Waves. During the programme we have learnt about the latest developments in the blue economy and space opportunities including the main actors and investment opportunities in Australia. During our Trade Mission we had the opportunity to establish really useful contacts with businesses, organisations and relevant programmes. We were very pleased with the assistance we received and the organisation of the various events throughout Space2Waves. We look forward to similar initiatives in the future.”
Jessica Abbate from Geomatys noted, “Thanks to the Space2Waves program, we discovered a vibrant Blue Economy in South Africa, and have begun discussions with future partners based in the region on a project that will have global reach. This program helped to connect us with this community of innovators, stimulated important conversations, showed us the ins-and-outs of exporting to South Africa and to Africa in general, and inspired us to explore new types of clients for our product. The program has given us guidance and motivation specifically for the development of commercial products, which is in the larger scope of our development as a company.”
As the Space2Waves project comes to a successful conclusion, the SpaceWave Alliance, which was started during an earlier SpaceWaves project, will continue the support and development of European Earth Observation (EO) technologies in the Blue Economy. The Alliance comprises of the 6 project partners and aims to engage in a number of activities to continue to develop the internationalisation of European SMEs via a number of initiatives beyond the end of the project. For more information on the SpaceWave Alliance click here or contact space2waves@polemermediterranee.com
Ends
Space2Waves is a 24 months project financed by the European Commission’s COSME Cluster Go International call for proposal (COS-CLUSINT-2019-3-01).
Space2Waves is the continuation of the SpaceWave project which successfully developed an internationalization strategy to accelerate the global deployment of Earth Observation (EO) technologies in the Blue Growth sector and to support European SMEs’ competitiveness.
Earth Observation technologies represent a solution to many of the issues the maritime environment is currently facing. They contribute to the implementation of a sustainable blue economy as they are one of the most available, effective and cost-efficient technologies to explore, monitor, control and study the exploitation of oceans and their resources.
Space2Waves brings together 6 European clusters with experience in the blue economy and space sectors.
