Successful realisation of “Ready2Net” a European Commission-funded project

The Pilot project READY2NET - Fostering Opportunities for SME Internationalisation by Supporting SME Networks for Export ended successfully in August 2021.

The project fosters connection opportunities for European SMEs and start-ups, willing to develop, further expand, and improve their international business by creating Networks, aimed at enhancing SME’s capacity to exploit foreign markets for export purposes.
Ready2Net Pilot Project, financed by the European Commission, Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs, was carried out by an international consortium led by the Italian Research Centre Innovhub Stazioni Sperimentali per l’Industria srl together with: Consejo de Camaras Oficiales de Comercio, Industria Y Navigacion de la Comunidad Valenciana (Spain), Izba Przemyslowo – Handlowa W Krakowie (Poland), Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vratsa (Bulgaria), and Latvijas Tehnologiskais Centrs Nodibinajums (Latvia).

The project started in March 2019 and managed to successfully fund 9 Networks for export and support them through the realisation of their action plans. Each one of the Networks consisted of several companies and the sectors represented were Food, Textiles, Bioeconomy, Industry 4.0, and Design. One of the networks called “Joint Export Activities to Japan”, consisting of 4 companies from Portugal, Italy (2), and Bulgaria, offering different healthy food products, managed to successfully co-exhibit at Foodex Japan in March 2021 under the common name “Europe Gourmet Network”.
The final dissemination event was held virtually on 13 October 2021. During the event, the lead partner gave an overview of the project’s goals, each network presented their action plan and the results achieved, as well as the lessons learnt and future plans. Main barriers and opportunities that emerged during the implementation of the project were also presented by one of the export managers of two networks.
Ready2Net Networks and participant companies share that the participation in the project and the respective networks was a positive experience that improved their internationalisation capacity, helped them reach new customers and collaboration between the companies will continue even after the end of the project.

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