2018 GCCIR Matchmaking Mission to Europe
“Everyone was skeptical at first as the itinerary was tightly packed, but we managed to pull it off and had five very promising matchmaking symposia in Barcelona, Prague, Munich, Aachen and Cambridge.” – Katelyn Petersen, Executive Director of the GCCIR
With the inception of the Alberta-Europe Technology Collaboration Fund in April 2018, this year’s Matchmaking Mission aimed at covering a larger amount of European countries than ever before. This meant that planning of the mission started early in the spring. It took a lot of work deciding on the destinations and locations for this year’s Matchmaking Symposia, as well as looking for new matchmaking partners to organize the events in locations that all except for one (Munich) we had never visited with a delegation before. The new Matchmakers – Innoget, CzechInvest and Cambridge Network – that we found were amazing to work with, and our existing partners – Zenit GmbH and TUMTech GmbH – did an exceptional job as they had done in previous years for our Matchmaking Missions to Germany.
At the five symposia, the 13 Albertan companies that joined this year’s Matchmaking Mission to Europe, had the opportunity to meet with approximately 300 representatives from companies and research organisations predominantly, but also federal and provincial governments and agencies. The symposium in Aachen, for which the GCCIR also worked with the IraSME Network, was a bigger partnering event in that it offered a large pool of participating companies also from other European countries, such as Belgium, Austria, Croatia and Greece.
Further highlights of the mission included research visits to one of the Eurecat Technology Centres just outside of Barcelona, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics, and Cybernetics in Prague, as well as cultural visits of the Christmas Market in Aachen and the Ayinger Brewery near Munich.
The feedback we have received so far from the Alberta participants was exceedingly positive and we are very optimistic that the mission will result in several high-quality funding applications.