The Enterprise Europe Network arrives in Colombia

For the first time, the Enterprise Europe Network will have a representation in Colombia to promote the internationalization of companies from the country to Europe and vice versa.

The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) helps companies innovate and grow in the EU single market and beyond. It is the world’s largest service provider for small and medium-sized enterprises with international ambitions. Since its launch in 2008, the Network has played a crucial role in facilitating European SMEs’ access to the Single Market and other international markets.

The Enterprise Europe Network supports companies in establishing cross-border business cooperation, innovation and technology transfer partnerships and joint research and development collaboration. To date, the EEN has achieved the following numerical impact:

• More than 14,000 companies have signed business, technology or research partnerships.
• More than 200,000 companies have attended events and international intermediation missions.
• More than 4,200,000 SMEs have benefited from the Network’s services.
• More than 2,500,000 SMEs have benefited from information services and training sessions
• More than 500,000 SMEs have received advice from the Network’s experts to help them innovate and grow internationally.
• More than 3,000 local experts and 453 partner organizations.
• Presence in more than 60 countries.

Coordination of the EEN in Colombia

The coordinating entity of EEN Colombia will be Impact Hub Medellin, an international entity born in London in 2005 that has a hundred locations in more than 60 countries. Since its arrival in Colombia in 2018, it has implemented more than 45 incubation, acceleration and international scaling programs, impacting more than 1,000 companies across the country.

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The coordination of the EEN Colombia will be carried out in alliance with Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, an entity that covers the entire Colombian territory with main offices in Medellín, alternate offices in Montería, Bucaramanga and Palmira, and management units in Marinilla, Rionegro and Bogotá. UPB is an EcoCampus with Multicampus Institutional Accreditation of High Quality in Carbon Neutral by Icontec. It is a university with 87 years of tradition.

In addition, the following entities are part of the EEN’s business support consortium in Colombia:

• Procolombia
• Innpulsa
• Proantioquia
• Medellín Chamber of Commerce
• Barranquilla Chamber of Commerce
• Cartagena Chamber of Commerce
• Cali Chamber of Commerce
• ANDI Cali Branch
• RutaN
• ACI, Cooperation and Investment Agency of Medellín
• ACOPI Antioquia
• Tecnnova, National Innovation Agency

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Approaches of the EEN in Colombia

EEN Colombia’s priorities will be to help companies from all sectors and corporate projects expand into Europe and other global growth markets, establish a global hub in Colombia supporting companies to grow, innovate and scale, enable companies to develop new products and services, help companies adopt sustainable business models, foster resilience and help companies recover from the Covid-19 crisis.

EEN Colombia’s focus sectors may cover the following industry ecosystems: tourism, mobility-transport-automotive, aerospace and defense, construction, agri-food, energy-intensive industries, textiles, creative and cultural industries, digital, renewable energy, electronics, retail, proximity and social economy and health.

Organizations interested in accessing EEN Colombia’s business and international support services will be able to take part in international business intermediation events (physical/hybrid/virtual), as well as advisory services in:

• innovation: business reviews and innovation, technology transfer
• research: research funding (capacity building for Horizon Europe), R&D cooperation, internationalization: services related to trade and investment.
• internationalization: trade-related services (tariffs, regulatory alignment), market intelligence exchange (standards, certification, industry regulations and tenders), international scaling-up programs and trade missions.

By 2023, EEN Colombia expects to support the internationalization of more than 100 companies in Colombia through international scaling-up programs to Germany, Spain, Finland and the Netherlands, among others.

More information: Delegación de la Unión Europea en Colombia