Huawei, SPICI, and SmartCommunitiesTech collaborate to support the growth and internationalization of Italian startups and SMEs

Huawei Italia, SPICI - Society for Innovation, Cooperation and Internationalisation – 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 internationalisation.

According to the agreement signed between the three, SmartCommunitiesTech becomes an official partner of Acceleration for Change, the technological acceleration programme promoted by Huawei and SPICI, now in its second edition this year, enriching it with further benefits for the startups, spin-offs, SMEs and Independent Software Vendors selected by Huawei and SPICI following their participation in the call for applications.

Indeed, 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 programme aimed at fostering the creation of partnerships, ideas and projects on selected topics related to various types of calls, conducted in collaboration with other European Clusters and open to companies, research organisations, universities, cities and clusters from all Member States.

Moreover, SmartCommunitiesTech will contribute to promoting the call for applications of the Acceleration for Change programme through its own communication channels and network of contacts and will be involved by Huawei and SPICI in events and activities related to the programme, with particular attention to the Naples and southern Italy area, in order to promote the opportunities offered by the Cluster to businesses, research entities, and cities in the South.

“As Huawei, we are committed to contributing to the country's economy also through the support for development that we offer to Italian startups and SMEs with our Acceleration for Change programme,” stated Fabio Romano, Head of Industrial Ecosystem Development at Huawei Italia.

“Thanks to the collaboration with our partners, who bring their expertise and experience in international markets into the project, we offer the most innovative Italian companies concrete growth opportunities by leveraging a wide range of technological and non-technological resources, from the European Huawei Public Cloud to advertising services, and an equally extensive showcase for marketing their solutions abroad.”

“The recent participation of the SmartCommunitiesTech Cluster in the roadshow promoting the Acceleration for Change programme was a propitious opportunity to establish a valuable collaboration, aimed at increasing the opportunities offered by the programme and also to share further activities promoted by our respective ecosystems,” declared Mariangela Contursi, General Director of SPICI. "Accompanying companies to foreign markets represents one of our main specialisations and we are therefore delighted to collaborate with Huawei and the Cluster in this sense as well, thus strengthening the offer of internationalisation services for the startups that will participate in our acceleration programme."

“For SmartCommunitiesTech, the collaboration with Huawei and SPICI plays a strategic role, and we are proud to contribute to the Acceleration for Change programme by offering participating startups free membership in our association and in the internationalisation programme Partnerships for Horizon Europe, an initiative that, in four editions, has involved 1200 participants from all over Europe online who have discussed joint projects with over 800 B2B meetings. Therefore, all the conditions are in place for further reciprocal development and to offer even better support services to companies,” explained Claudia Porchietto, President of SmartCommunitiesTech.