Launch of the European project CE4BIG
Cluster Excellence for Business Innovation and Growth in the Health Sector
The project CE4BIG – Cluster Excellence for Business Innovation and Growth in the Health Sector, was selected to receive funding under the EU COSME “European Cluster Excellence” initiative, which aims to foster cluster collaboration on a European-wide scale. The ultimate objective is to strengthen both, clusters and SMEs, to jointly master global competition and work on the answers to the challenges of personalized medicine.
CE4BIG federates 4 European healthcare clusters, with similar regional smart specialization strategies supporting the development of advanced therapies for personalized medicine. The consortium consists of the project leader, Atlanpole Biotherapies from France, BioM from Germany, BioWin from Belgium, and Life Science Krakow from Poland.
The CE4BIG project started on February 2nd and will be funded for 24 months.
This will enable the consortium to exchange expertise in topics of common interest for SMEs and to stimulate the dialogue between SME managers and business/innovation support stakeholders. The objectives also include taking the roadmaps of the involved clusters to the next excellence level, and creating a joint roadmap to future-proof the CE4BIG network. To achieve this, partners will engage in sectoral comparative analyses and pinpoint synergies, common challenges and areas of opportunities. As a result, the consortium will design a joint strategic plan to ensure the sustainability of the partnership.
CE4BIG is hoping to impact the European innovation landscape in several ways:
- 4 clusters will be awarded the Cluster Management Excellence labels (bronze, silver and gold) by the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI)
- 8 cluster managers will get highly profiled training to optimize their management skills
The project intends to promote business growth and to raise the innovation capacity of SMEs.
The project intends to promote business growth and to raise the innovation capacity of SMEs. Professional cluster services will be optimized through targeted activities including the ClusterXchange scheme, which enables and fosters cross-border collaboration between innovation stakeholders (health SMEs, CROs, research units, etc.) in the innovation ecosystems of the project partners. The exchanges aim at helping SMEs within the partnership, design and fine-tune their business models, develop new partnerships, seize new business opportunities abroad, and secure funding for business and innovation to reach proof of technology and grow beyond. The exchanges also enhance the innovation process by providing professional and sector-specific support to bio-entrepreneurs and start-ups.
The project will also benefit cluster management and strategic skills through customized training and transnational cluster-to-cluster missions.
- 4 transnational C2C missions will be organized to foster peer-learning and cluster collaboration
- 52 organizations will participate in exchanges organized via the ClusterXchange scheme
- 4 individual cluster management organizations will take their strategic plans to the next level, delivering optimal and demand-driven services, and promoting cutting-edge developments in personalized medicine
- 1 European partnership will be designed and implemented in form of a coordinated action, focused on innovations in personalized medicine.
This project and the other European initiatives are available here
Contact
Any question? Please contact Joëlle Gahimbare, European Projects Manager
