NEWS AND EVENTS

A large meeting of members of partner clusters involved in the PERES project is to be held on January 30th, in Belgrade, Serbia.

During the event, PERES team will present the internationalization strategy drafted for SME sector of European railway industry, as well as present the plans for the pilot trip to the United States, where selected companies will have an opportunity to meet with the representatives of US institutions, companies and other relevant stakeholders of their railway market. In addition, a B2B matching session will be held at the event, providing companies with the opportunity to network with other like-minded companies from the European railway industry.

This event is of interest to all companies that seek to expand their business outside of the European Union, that aim specifically for the market of the United States, as well as the companies that wish to meet like-minded companies they could collaborate with.

If you are interested in the event, please register at the separate webpage.

PERES team invites all interested SMEs to apply for the pilot study trip to the United States, that will be held between March 31st and April 6th.

Information and the application for the study trip can be found here.

Agenda of the study trip can be found here.

Deadline for the applications is January 30 2019.

PERES team met at InnoTrans with the representatives of Quebec Surface Transportation Cluster.

During an open conversation, PERES Team received information concerning the North-American market, and the possibilities for European SMEs to expand their business activities into this region or form strategic partnerships.

During the B2B session, cluster managers involved in the PERES project used an opportunity to hold a regular session of the project steering committee.

Main items on the agenda were to cross the information individual clusters had concerning the identified target markets – USA and India, and to draft the preliminary plan for pilot study visit.

On the second day of InnoTrans fair in Berlin, on 19^th of September, event was held with interesting B2B meetings of members of five European railway clusters among which were also the members of RCSEE.

In a relaxed atmosphere members of the following clusters, partners on the PERES project met: Railway Cluster of Southeast Europe, Rail Cluster BTW from the state of Saxony, I-Trans from France, Rail Alliance from United Kingdom and DITECFER from Italy.

The meeting was an opportunity for new contacts and business networking to be made, but also for the discussion of cluster representatives concerning deeper cooperation in joint project PERES under the patronage of European Commission and the EU.

At this year’s leading world trade fair for transport technologies InnoTrans in Berlin a large B2B meeting of members from five European clusters is planned – DITECFER, Tuscany, Italy; BTS Rail Saxony, Saxony, Germany; I-Trans, France; Rail Alliance, United Kingdom and Rail Cluster for Southeast Europe

This meeting is organized within the framework of the PERES project financed by the European Commission under the COSME program (2014-2020) and aims to deepen the connection between European companies for mutual understanding and business cooperation and possible future joint participation in non-European markets.

PERES Matchmaking & Networking Session for PERES members will be held on 19^th of September, 2018, in Hall B, CityCube | 103. You can register for the event at https://innotrans2018.b2match.io/

Cluster managers involved in the PERES project met in Rome to discuss the results of interviews of their member SMEs capacities and desires to go international.

The steering committee discussed the findings of the interviews and in-depth analysis provided by team members. Both the capacities of SMEs to go international, their internationalization plans and target markets were considered, as well as potential value chains in which SMEs from multiple clusters could participate.

After identifying the plans and desires of SMEs for internationalization, as well as taking into account the cluster’s information about the potential markets, three main markets were identified as being of interest for the project – USA, India and China.

In the following period, PERES team will focus on exploring these markets, and identifying opportunities for European SMEs to enter into them.

PERES project exhibits at the exhibition “RAIL LIVE 2018” in Stratford-upon-Avon (UK) within the “Export Hub” thanks to the collaboration of the local Partner Rail Alliance. The PERES Coordinator and 8 of its companies from Italy have presented the project and networked with the British companies

Co-organised by the Partner Rail Alliance, the exhibition RAIL LIVE 2018 held on June 20th-21st at Stratford-upon-Avon has become an important opportunity for PERES to be known by the British companies and to gather useful information about their needs in terms of internationalization priorities. The presence of a “PERES Point” (under the Eurail Clusters Initiative) within the “Export Hub” area has allowed the PERES Coordinator and the Partner Rail Alliance to connect companies and to discuss with key stakeholders for internationalization, such as the UK Department for International Trade, the UK Export Finance, the UK Intellectual Property Office, the Rail Alliance Middle East personnel.

The Coordinator of PERES, as member of the European Commission Expert Group on the Competitiveness of the Rail Supply Industry, has been invited to present PERES project as “best practice” in the field of SMEs internationalization to the Expert Group, managed by DG GROW and composed by 60 Experts from the European Rail Industry.

The PERES project Coordinator, Veronica Elena Bocci, in her role of DITECFER Coordinator (the Tuscan Railway Cluster), has presented the PERES project as “best practice” in the Session of the Expert Group on the Competitiveness of the Rail Supply Industry dedicated to “SMEs Internationalization”. The presentation was, hence, made to the “Wider Audience” of Stakeholders identified in the project as “targets” (European Commission, UNIFE, JU Shift2Rail, the main Railway Industries, National Railway Associations).

The presentation was made in a moment where the first results from the round of interviews to SMEs and Large Companies members of the Partners were available. Such results have highlighted interesting facts and figures:

– the perception of Large Companies about SMEs capabilities to go international is of “not readiness”

– on the contrary SMEs of the Rail Supply Chain are very active on European markets

– their activity on markets beyond EU is only a bit lower

– the main channels used to go international is Direct sales (tenders are only applied by a minority; also technological transfer is very limited).

PERES Project was presented to a wide audience in Railway News, leading rail news and information portal.

The article spoke at length about PERES project, cluster collaboration and importance of internationalization initiatives for SMEs. Several of the partners on the project were interviewed.

Full article may be found online at railway-news.com