The “Transition pathway for the Textiles ecosystem” was published in June 2023. Together with the publication, the Commission launched a call for commitments. Its purpose is to collect commitments from stakeholders on concrete actions they will take to bring forward the actions identified in the transition pathway. All stakeholders who wish to make a public commitment are welcome to do so. The initial deadline to submit commitments is 30 September 2023 for a first stocktaking exercise. Link to the survey

This year’s call for proposals for the Innowwide funding programme opened on 25 July 2023. Applications can be submitted until 17 October 2023. Innovative SMEs and start-ups from the European Union (EU), Iceland, Israel, Norway and Turkey are eligible to apply. Innowwide funds bilateral projects with local partners with a fixed amount of 60,000 euros. The programme is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs.

Hamburg Aviation announced the official formation of the Global Aerospace Cluster Partnership (GACP) to foster collaboration, knowledge exchange and innovation within the global aerospace community. The first official GACP meeting took place during the 2023 Paris Air Show and brought together 12 clusters and cluster facilitators from around the world, marking a significant milestone in promoting international aerospace cluster collaboration.

After three years of coming together digitally, the “go-cluster” conference took place on 13 July 2023 in the conference rooms of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz, BMWK). The event focused on the topic “Strong together against cyber threats: Clusters as the key to business resilience”. In exciting technical sessions as well as interesting presentations, the nearly 100 participants learned about the basics of cyber security – and how these can be put into practice by clusters as multipliers.

The BioTech Bootcamp is an international training programme free of charge in partnership with SmiLe and Bio^M. It is designed to support start-ups and innovators focusing on Pharma and Drug Discovery ideas. The Bootcamp runs over eight weeks, six weeks online and two weeks on-site. Application deadline ends on 6 August 2023.

The new “MCN Guideline” – a guideline to ship efficiency – provides a clear line in the international sea of regulations. The document provides a compact overview of currently applicable regulations and reveals how ship operations can be improved and made more efficient. The impetus for the publication came from the members of the Maritime Cluster Northern Germany (MCN), a member of the “go-cluster” programme of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).

With sensor technology from a cross-cluster project of the “go-cluster” members Strategische Partnerschaft Sensorik e. V. and MAI Carbon, top athlete Hannes Aigner is preparing for his fourth Olympic participation. Whatever the season, the team world champion in canoe slalom navigates his boat through whitewater. Aigner has participated for Germany in all Olympic Games since 2012.

As part of the “Automotive Industry Future Fund”, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) is funding the “Transformation Hub Automotive Software Engineering” (TASTE) with a total of approx. 3.8 million euros. The project was approved by BMWK by the 1 November 2022 and aims at strengthening the competence of the automobile sector to integrate software along the value chain and product life cycle. Part of the consortium is also the “go-cluster” member ITS mobility e. V., which takes on the role of networking partner.

As part of the TraceBot funding project, around 50 experts from research and industry came together to discuss current opportunities and challenges in laboratory automation. The Robotics-4-Labautomation Symposium offered a wide-ranging programme highlighting current topics related to robotics and laboratory automation in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The health network BioLAGO hosted the event.

The Digital Economy Cluster Schleswig-Holstein (DiWiSH) took part in the delegation trip to Boston and Silicon Valley in June 2023. Daniel Günther, Prime Minister of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, Minister of Digitalisation Dirk Schrödter, State Secretary Julia Carstens and a 50-strong delegation from politics, science and companies were among the participants. The aim of the trip was to gather knowledge and experience in the field of digitalisation and artificial intelligence and to strengthen cooperation with leading companies and institutions.

On 5 September 2023, the European Clusters Alliance (ECA) will launch its Clusters4eDIH workgroup, with a keen focus on clusters’ status and contributions to the European Digital Innovation Hubs (eDIH). This event will create a cluster’s space for exploration, engagement, and the exchange of ideas that will shape the digital future of Europe.

The EU Clusters Talks are an ECCP service that has become a valuable asset for the community. The format keeps up-to-date with the latest industrial policies and clusters’ involvement, provide insights into interesting projects and best practices, give the latest ECCP news, and alert to funding opportunities. Most importantly, it will act as a space to exchange knowledge and discuss topics significant to the EU business community. The next EU Clusters Talk on EU Strategic Foresight takes place on 6 September 2023.

The OptoNet Summer Course “Fast Physical Optics Modeling and Design” takes place from 11 to 15 September 2023 in Jena (Germany). It is designed for optical scientists, engineers, designers with varying levels of expertise with VirtualLab Fusion in mind, starting from total beginners. Participants will be equipped with the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge to make the most of their work with the fast physical optics software VirtualLab Fusion.