INGENIOUS

Building resilience and accelerating transition to green and digital economy in Energy Intensive Industries (EII)

Project News

Training Grant call

Attention all European SMEs operating in Energy-Intensive-Industries. In today’s ever-changing business landscape, it’s essential for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to stay ahead of the curve. To help with this, INGENIOUS is offering 100 training grants each worth € 250, to help SMEs improve their digital skills, green transition, resilience preparedness and reskilling and upskilling of the workforce. We are excited to announce our INGENIOUS call for Training grants.

The Call is open until February 14th, 2025, 4 pm (CET)
A maximum grant of 250 EUR per SME from all the lump sum schemes.

Results of the Internationalisation Grant

We’re thrilled to announce that 10 innovative SMEs from across Europe—Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, and France—have been awarded our Internationalisation Grant! Each company will receive €2,500 to fuel their global expansion efforts. These grants are already helping these SMEs enter strategic markets such as Kazakhstan, India, South Korea, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Japan, Canada, and Israel.

The funding has been instrumental in supporting market entry, forging new partnerships, and tackling key challenges, from regulatory requirements to logistical barriers.

We’re excited to see the impact these SMEs will have as they expand internationally!
– Check out the full list of awarded SMEs on our project website
– Read more about the impact on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform

Results of the Innovation Grant

Celebrating Innovation: INGENIOUS Consortium Awards 7 Projects with 1M EUR

In a momentous celebration of innovation, the INGENIOUS consortium is thrilled to announce the successful awarding of 1 million euros in total lump sum to 7 outstanding innovation projects. This achievement is a testament to the commitment of the consortium in fostering groundbreaking ideas that have the potential to drive positive change across European countries.
The INGENIOUS consortium played a pivotal role in supporting the growth of 19 SMEs from 8 different European countries through the Innovation grant. In addition to national collaborative projects, the consortium has also facilitated several cross-border collaborative projects. These projects exemplify the power of collective thinking, as participants from different countries join forces to address challenges and create solutions that have a broader impact.

A heartfelt congratulations is extended to the 7 winning projects that have been recognized for their ingenuity and potential to contribute significantly to innovation in European countries. Each project represents a unique approach to solving real-world problems, and the INGENIOUS consortium is proud to support these endeavours.
The awarded projects cover a diverse range of Energy Intensive Industries, from technology and products to sustainability and beyond. It is anticipated that these initiatives will not only drive innovation within their respective domains but will also inspire future generations of entrepreneurs and innovators
As we celebrate the success of these 7 awarded projects, we look forward to witnessing the positive impact they will undoubtedly have on European countries.
Let’s continue to champion innovation and create a brighter future together!

For more information read the article on ECCP

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Project summary

Currently, Europe is facing highly turbulent times in the context of the unpredictable changes caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, a significant fast-paced bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to the economy, in other words, an energy crisis, is firmly approaching. To tackle these challenges and provide sustainable solutions in the long term to secure a climate-neutral economy, a disruptive innovation/transformation of the industrial value chains is needed, especially those of Energy-Intensive Industries (EIIs). EIIs are responsible for generating more than half of the energy consumption of the European industry, thus causing a tremendous carbon footprint. Furthermore, EII value chains are deeply embedded and cross-linked with most of the other global industrial value chains. Digital and green transition are the key drivers for boosting such a change and securing the long-term viability of the European inclusive market. Both drivers are firmly embedded in the industrial strategy for Europe (European Commission, 2020) as engines with the utmost digital future. The Ingenious project will serve as a lever for the companies to implement highly innovative solutions, penetrate key markets, attract a critical mass of partners, and obtain needed support to strive. Furthermore, Ingenious will support, develop and maintain the long-term cooperation of companies and other organizations in a cross-sectoral and cross-border way. This EUROCLUSTER will work together with other supporters like the European Cluster Collaboration Platform, Enterprise Europe Network, and European Digital Innovation Hubs but also with other Euroclusters projects (e.g., CircInWater) and other related projects to maximize the impact and spread knowledge. The consortium of Ingenious is in close relation with 63 other clusters all over Europe with a capacity to reach over 11.000 cluster members whereof more than 7.000 are SMEs.

Metalworking, nano and plasma technology are just examples of Energy Intensive Industries (EII) and the activities developed within the Ingenious project should be transferred to other energy-intensive industries in Europe and beyond (e.g., cement, ceramics, refractory, chemicals, refining, lime, pulp etc.). The Ingenious consortium is structured in such a way that members of METAINDUSTRY4, BalticNet-PlasmaTec and Nanoprogress are considered as challenge owners from the energy-intensive sectors but also as solution providers while members of Mazovian Cluster ICT are solution providers. Long-term cross-border and cross-sector cooperation also guarantees the application of the project results and the undertaking of joint activities by consortia in the field of water or food. The graphic below illustrates the possibilities.

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Main achievements of the project

• Resilience preparedness/business continuity plans in Energy Intensive Industries
• Networking and collaboration events including matchmaking to improve the innovation potential of SME
• Ingenious Open Call Dossier (Innovation voucher: max. 6 funded projects with a consortium of 2-3 SMEs, max. funding 60.000 € per SME minus 250 € for Training (resilience) voucher
• New-to-firm products or services in the industrial ecosystem/s and business process innovations adopted in the industrial ecosystem/s selected from the awarded projects
• Training for cluster managers
• Training voucher for SME (Each funded innovation project [innovation voucher] has to go to the training for the business continuity model plan (resilient plan) after or during their project. This training is mandatory for all SMEs that are getting innovation grants. Additional training vouchers will be around 80 vouchers each 250 € for different training activities)
• Services portfolio to implement internationalisation actions (Internationalisation voucher for SME to enter new markets outside Europe. 10 vouchers are available with a volume of 2.500 € each voucher)
• Mission Lessons Learnt
• Joint communication strategy
• Communication outreach
• Project quality plan

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Work Chart

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Experiences and cooperation with other running or submitted projects

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