Sustainable cooperation with the Energy and Applications Cluster
This project aims to support the creation of a partner cluster in Benin and set up a sustainable collaboration.
Overview of the project
Since 2017, the MEDEE cluster has been supporting the Hauts-de-France Region in the implementation of its Energy for Africa strategy. With a dynamic academic and economic fabric, a proactive policy and strong historical links with our territory, Benin has emerged as the first privileged partner in Africa.
Following a first MEDEE trip to Cotonou in June 2018, the project to support the creation of a partner cluster was born with the ambition to:
- Accompany and finalize the creation of the Energy and Applications Cluster in Benin
- Map the skills and needs of the energy sector in Benin and define a roadmap to structure and develop it
- Implement a sustainable framework for collaboration between the two networks to promote the development of infrastructure, training and R&D projects beneficial to both territories.
The two clusters are joining forces to multiply opportunities for wealth creation and to help expand their project portfolios to new areas and new players. They will work in mirror mode to promote the sharing of best practices, accelerate the search for partners and funding, and facilitate access to technology platforms and resources within each network.
This project is part of a more global project of the Hauts-de-France Region and the municipality of Sèmè Podji entitled “Sèmè City, the smart and sustainable city” and including two other actions: the organization of a forum and the launch of a call for innovative projects on renewable energy and eco-construction in Benin.
Support the creation of a partner cluster in Benin and set up a sustainable collaboration.
Ongoing research
2019 - 2021 (project still in progress)
- December 2019: the Energy and Applications Cluster is officially created, its board is elected and it already has about thirty members from the worlds of business and training.
- February 2020: the MEDEE cluster organizes an immersion stay in Lille for the partner cluster. The signing of the framework partnership agreement between the two clusters during the Forum of Energy Actors for Africa further formalizes the collaboration and anchors it in the long term.
This project benefits from the financial support of the Hauts-de-France Region, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Sèmè City Development Agency.
organisation
The MEDEE cluster, the electrical engineering cluster of Hauts-de-France, brings together companies (from large groups to innovative startups) and academics (universities, schools, laboratories) around collaborative Research & Development & Innovation projects in electrical engineering. Since 2017, with the Hauts-de-France Region, our association has been supporting its members in their deployment in Africa: our objective is to support the development of concrete collaborative projects, while consolidating the electrical networks sector in Hauts-de-France.
MEDEE defends the following values in each of its actions:
- Assume an ambitious and innovative position on an issue at the crossroads of the global challenges of the 21st century, in particular global warming and migration crises
- Engage in a co-construction approach, marked by win-win relationships with African partners: this is an essential condition for the sustainability of the process. This implies a real effort to ensure the excellence of projects, the reciprocal transfer of skills, and the monitoring and evaluation of collaborations
- Supporting innovation in Africa and in Hauts-de-France, by proposing an offer at the cutting edge of technology, socially and economically sustainable
The demonstrators in Hauts-de-France embody the regional skills of African partners. The projects set up in Africa will inspire future developments in European networks towards more decentralization and renewable energy.
Since 2017, our cluster has supported 29 projects, 15 of which are already funded in 12 different countries. In total, this approach has mobilized more than 90 actors in Hauts-de-France and Africa.
in collaboration
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Cluster Energies et Applications
Cluster