Supporting YOU
Growing Your Business
Enterprise Europe Network
Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) at Cork Chamber is a free service which offers support and advice to help SMEs to internationalise. EEN helps Irish businesses to find international partners outside of Ireland, to innovate and grow internationally.
Who are Enterprise Europe Network?
Enterprise Europe Network is a European Commission-funded programme, with over 600 contact points in 65 countries across the EU and beyond. The Enterprise Europe Network Ireland services are delivered by a partnership between Enterprise Ireland, Cork Chamber of Commerce, Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the Local Enterprise Office.
We have access to a Europe wide and global network of support agencies for SMEs through the Enterprise Europe Network, we can reach out to Network colleagues worldwide in organisations including Chambers of Commerce, Regional Development Agencies, Research Institutes and Universities. This means that we can help SMEs, companies like you in our region, to find partners in other regions and also to support international companies to access partners in Ireland.
Enterprise Europe Network services for SMES include: Partnership, Advisory & Innovation.
PARTNERSHIP
Find a partner abroad for your business
Find a partner abroad – free access to global partnering opportunities
Enterprise Europe Network at Cork Chamber is connected to a Network that manages Europe’s largest online database of over ten thousand business opportunities in 65 countries. This enables us to access expertise and contacts to connect you with the right international partners.
The database contains profiles of companies looking for or offering to co-develop and supply your products, ideas and services or act a distributor, supplier, manufacturer, partner for joint venture, franchising, and outsourcing agreements. The network is increasingly useful for strategic sourcing requests in a bid to save time and costs and improve supply chains.
It’s possible for local Cork based businesses (both members and non-members of Cork Chamber) to search for business offers and requests to find new international business or academic partners.
Enterprise Europe Network can help you find the right partner here.
Find a partner – how Cork Chamber EEN works with you
- Subscribe. With an Enterprise Europe Network client account, subscribe to partner opportunity email alerts based on your own search criteria
- Search our global partnership database to find relevant opportunities
- Express your interest by telling us about your company. These are live opportunities. Your registration of interest on the site is just like a professional approach to a business at a networking event. To stand the best chance of success, make your submission really stand out. State clearly why the client who posted the opportunity should work with you. Ask questions and tailor your expression of interest to the address the request or offer to find a good match.
- We’ll discuss with you. We collate responses and introduce matched partners to each other. We put the right partners in touch. Our role is to review and collate the most suitable submissions, and then send them to the client who posted the opportunity. We consult with you, and the client, to make the process as straightforward as possible.
- Introductions. Once the client has chosen their partner, we’ll introduce them over email and keep in touch with both parties to see how it’s going. Sometimes things progress quickly. Sometimes because of changing priorities for either party, things progress slowly, but often a good match comes along.
You can continue to search for and stay updated on SME and academic partners to manufacture, distribute, co-develop and supply your products, ideas and services.
Get in touch to assess if profiling your company could support your company’s international journey. Email: mkelly@corkchamber.ie
Business matchmaking and brokerage events
Business matchmaking and brokerage events at international conferences
Participating in an Enterprise Europe Network event could be your first step towards international business opportunities.
The Network organises different types of business-oriented events:
- Brokerage events – Business-to-business matching alongside international trade events. In 2019, 135+ B2B meetings were facilitated between Irish and international SMEs.
- View listings of upcoming online meetings and events
- Conferences and workshops as well as niche and market-specific events are hosted at a local level in Cork and nationally with partners. In 2019, five trade seminars were hosted by Cork Chamber to support companies to internationalise.
Trade missions
Trade missions
Inbound and outbound trade missions can lead to successful partnerships.
In 2019, Cork Chamber and Enterprise Europe Network supported 10 inbound delegations totalling 150 international visitors.
Cork Chamber has most recently welcomed missions from Malta (IT services sector) and Northern Ireland (food and tourism sector) to Cork.
ADVICE
Market information and international market opportunities
Market Information
With more than 600 partner organisations worldwide, we are well placed to provide you with market information including on domestic legislation, regulations and relevant local agencies in your target country.
If you are looking for specific overseas market information or insights, we will use our EEN contacts to provide you with insights.
Better understanding EU legislation
Understand EU legislation
Get in touch if you need information on doing business in Europe or up-to-date European legislation for issues such as:
- CE Marking and Standards
- Export documentation
- Certification of origin service
- Labelling legislation
Access to finance & funding
Access to finance & funding
The EU wants to support SMEs with innovative products and services to go global. If you have a business idea that you think could succeed with extra support and finance please contact us. We do not provide funding directly, our assistance is by way of soft supports, but we can provide you with information and signpost you to funding opportunities via Horizon Europe, local enterprise agencies and other potential sources of support.
INNOVATION
- Advice and help for innovative SMEs to access Research & Innovation funding (Horizon Europe, SME Instrument …)
- Innovation Management Services
- Technology Transfer
Consultations
The European Commission seeks your views to propose new & revised rules for digital services & online platforms in the EU –Provide your views
SMEs are encouraged to report difficulties resulting from existing EU legislation or policies, experienced by individual companies in the Single Market. The European Commission is really interested in all issues such as Public Procurement, Funding, Trade Marks, Labelling, Electronic Commerce, Environment, Customs, Taxes on products, Payments, Research and Development raised in the European Union or in the Third Countries.
If you have experienced operational difficulties, resolved or not, for your business in the EU market or in Third Countries, please get in touch. We will share your case with EU competition authorities using our SME feedback database.
FIND OUT MORE
- Visit the Enterprise Europe Network Ireland website
- Join our group on LinkedIn
- Follow us on Twitter @EEN_Cork
- For further information on EEN, please contact: Margaret Kelly, mkelly@corkchamber.ie
INNOVATION
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