Catalonia secures €5.2M for EU projects on sustainability and women’s business leadership

Catalonia, through ACCIÓ – Catalonia Trade & Investment, is participating in three European projects with a combined budget of 5.2 million euros. All three initiatives fall within the scope of sustainability and the promotion of women in business and are co-financed by the European Union (EU) with funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and have an approximate duration of four years.

On one hand, the WOMEX project aims to facilitate cultural change in business across EU regions, so that the competitiveness and sustainable growth of exporting SMEs are no longer conceived without equal opportunities for the women who form part of them. The project addresses the chronic barriers women face in accessing the benefits of international trade, a field that offers strong potential for professionals and businesses. The WOMEX project has a total budget of 1.7 million euros.

As for its actions, it will develop a catalogue of best practices, compiled by the partners through regional exchanges and based on the findings of regional studies on gender bias in exporting SMEs, as well as the design of tailored support tools.

In addition to ACCIÓ – Catalonia Trade & Investment, through its Catalonia Suppliers team, the initiative includes participation from the Lithuanian National Innovation Agency, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pécs-Baranya (Hungary), the Association of Business Women of Serbia, Basque Trade & Investment (Basque Country), the Mazovia Development Agency (Poland), the Marshal’s Office of the Mazovian Voivodship in Warsaw (Poland), Austria Wirtschaftsservice (Austria), and the Regional Agency for Development and European Integration – RADEI (Serbia).

Secondly, the CHARGE project focuses on policies that promote innovative, safe, and sustainable development, production, reuse, and recycling of batteries, supporting the implementation of the new EU Battery Regulation. This initiative seeks to drive the transition toward a low-carbon circular economy, where batteries play a crucial role in storing renewable energy, powering electric vehicles, and reducing dependence on fossil fuels and carbon emissions.

With a total budget of 2.1 million euros, the project will provide a platform for regional and interregional stakeholder cooperation, strengthening battery value chains and regional ecosystems, and promoting connections and knowledge exchange between regional battery ecosystems.

Alongside ACCIÓ – Catalonia Trade & Investment, through the Office for the Transformation of the Automotive and Mobility Sector (OPTIMA), the project includes participation from the Baltic Institute of Finland, Business Tampere Oy (Finland), the Basque Energy Agency, the Intelligent Factory Lombardy Cluster (Italy), Østfold County Council (Norway), the Podlaska Regional Development Foundation (Poland), the Executive Committee of Zlatopil City Council of Kharkiv Region (Ukraine), and TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe GmbH (Germany).

Lastly, the LIGHTWEIGHT EU project promotes integrated policies for lightweight materials across the EU, enhancing industrial competitiveness and environmental sustainability in line with the goals of a “smarter Europe.” Through the strategic coordination of policies and knowledge exchange, this project paves the way for a more integrated, innovative, and sustainable European lightweight materials industry.

The project will focus on sharing best practices to strengthen national and regional policy initiatives across the EU, which in turn will drive environmental improvement, industrial modernization, job creation, and economic growth through increased competitiveness.

With a total budget of 1.4 million euros, and in addition to ACCIÓ – through the Office for the Transformation of the Automotive and Mobility Sector (OPTIMA) – participating entities include the Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovakia), Business Upper Austria (Austria), the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic (Slovakia), the RKW Saxony Productivity and Innovation Centre (Germany), the Ukrainian Cluster Alliance (Ukraine), and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway).