This transatlantic cluster cooperation event was the first of its kind and occured at a key point when economies from both sides of the Atlantic are coming even closer together.

Matthias Machnig, State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Bruce Andrews, US Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Elżbieta Bieńkowska, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs addressed the event on 25 April at 14h45 in Hall 2, 1st floor (Rooms 02.01.12 and 02.01.13) and set out the ambition to bring EU and US clusters closer for growth, employment and investment, and the mutual benefit of SMEs.

The event was jointly organised by the European Commission, the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and the US Department of Commerce in the framework of the EU-US Cooperation Arrangement on clusters signed in April 2015 in Washington.

The event explored what was learnt from the recent experience of EU clusters engaging in cooperation with US clusters, and discussed the potential of the European Cluster Collaboration Platform and US register and mapping tools to further support transatlantic cluster cooperation.

During this event, a total of 75 cluster representatives were scheduled for matchmaking meetings to engage in face-to-face discussion designed to identify the scope to cooperate around innovation for the benefit of SMEs to grow, export and invest as a result.

On the second day, cluster-to-business matchmaking meetings were organised. On both days cluster matchmaking activities were facilitated by the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) with the support of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).