Huawei Italy, SPICI – Company for Innovation, Cooperation, and Internationalization – and SmartCommunitiesTech, the National Technological Cluster dedicated to the development of innovation projects for smart cities and communities, join forces to offer Italian startups and SMEs opportunities for growth and internationalization.
According to the agreement signed by the three parties, SmartCommunitiesTech becomes an official partner of Acceleration for Change, the technological acceleration program promoted by Huawei and SPICI, now in its second edition this year, enriching it with additional benefits for startups, spinoffs, SMEs, and Independent Software Vendors selected by Huawei and SPICI following their participation in the call for proposals.
SmartCommunitiesTech will offer the opportunity to access the Cluster, with a free membership during the first year, which also includes participation in Partnerships for Horizon Europe (P4HEU), an international program aimed at fostering the creation of partnerships, ideas, and projects on selected topics related to various calls, carried out in collaboration with other European Clusters and open to companies, research bodies, universities, cities, and clusters from all Member States.
Furthermore, SmartCommunitiesTech will contribute to the promotion of the Acceleration for Change program call through its communication channels and contact network and will be involved by Huawei and SPICI in events and activities related to the program, with particular attention to the Naples area and southern Italy, to promote the opportunities offered by the Cluster to companies, research institutions, and cities in the South.
“As Huawei, we are committed to contributing to the country’s economy also through the development support we offer to Italian startups and SMEs with our Acceleration for Change program,” said Fabio Romano, Head of Industrial Ecosystem Development at Huawei Italy.
“Thanks to the collaboration with our partners, who bring their expertise and international market experience to the project, we offer the most innovative Italian realities concrete growth opportunities by leveraging a wide range of technological and non-technological resources, from the European Huawei Public Cloud to adv services, and an equally wide showcase to market their solutions abroad.”
“The recent participation of the SmartCommunitiesTech Cluster in the Acceleration for Change program promotion roadshow was an opportune occasion to establish a valuable collaboration, aimed at increasing the opportunities offered by the program but also at sharing further activities promoted by our respective ecosystems,” stated Mariangela Contursi, General Manager of SPICI. “Accompaniment to foreign markets represents one of our main specializations, and we are therefore pleased to collaborate with Huawei and the Cluster in this regard, thus strengthening the internationalization services offer for startups participating in our acceleration program.”
“For SmartCommunitiesTech, the collaboration with Huawei and SPICI plays a strategic role, and we are proud to contribute to the Acceleration for Change program by offering participating startups free membership to our association and the internationalization program Partnerships for Horizon Europe, an initiative that in four editions involved 1200 participants from all over Europe online who discussed joint projects with over 800 B2B meetings. There are, therefore, all the premises for further mutual development and to offer increasingly better support services to companies,” explained Claudia Porchietto, President of SmartCommunitiesTech.
