Our french partner, Pole SCS organized a mission to its ecosystem and a series of networking opportunities with key stakeholders. It was a very fruitful visit were we learnt from local experts about Smart Mobility topics and ecosystem

We first visited SAP Labs in Mougins near Sophia Antipolis. The company, which has three branches in France, has a fully electric fleet of 300 vehicles. Its own software manages them, and it is possible to control electricity consumption depending on the available charging time. The site has a total of 60 charging points from different manufacturers. Employees can use the "Charge at Home" programme and a limited number of charging points are made available on the site for the public. 

Then, we visited IMREDD, the Mediterranean Institute of Risk, Environment and Sustainable Development which works on innovation for environmental issues by bringing together public, private and research institutions. Projects include technologies for counting people, printed skin or breast implants for cancer victims, or so-called "ink food" for people with impediments. IMREDD was also involved in the development of an autonomous shuttle called MILLA POD, a Renault-based autonomous car currently being tested on the roads of Vélizy-Villacoublay, Aix-en-Provence and Nice in France.

We also had a very interesting day full of local company presentations related to smart mobility including application of apps, cybersecurity, IOT among others presented by several companies in the premises of Amadeus. 

In addition to company visits in and around Sophia Antipolis to SAP Labs, IMREDD and Inria, among others, participants had the opportunity to learn about mobility trends, meet other local stakeholders and arrange B2B meetings at Pôle SCS' Smart Mobility Market Day.

Last but not least, we had the opportunity to visit the INRIA technology centre working in autonomous driving research and Le Village which is a start-up accelerator which includes 24 start-ups. 

It was very interesting and inspiring mission about smart mobility. 

We participated together with other 11 organisations in the Smart Mobility Mission: Bullcharge (Bulgaria), PeLCer (Serbia), ScoreDigital (Poland), SODA (Poland), Wirtschaftsförderung Raum Heilbronn GmbH (Germany), Stowarzyszenie Wschodni Sojusz Motoryzacyjny (Poland), Cluster for Digital Transformation and Innovations (Bulgaria), Business Hive Vilnius Cluster (Lithuania), Mazovia Cluster ICT (Poland), Pôle SCS (France), Silicon Saxony (Germany)

Founded in 1969, the "French Silicon Valley" in Sophia Antipolis is now home to 2500 companies with more than 38 000 employees. Among them are large companies such as Accenture, Hitachi, HP, Intel, NXP, Orange and SAP. To overcome mobility challenges such as traffic jams during rush hour, local companies are working on e-mobility solutions and autonomous driving. For example, two self-driving shuttles were introduced in early 2022 to support bus services in the region.

EXCITE aims to strengthen cluster management and facilitate exchange and strategic partnership between cluster staff and cluster members by using the ClusterXchange system. ClusterXchange is a new pilot project to promote short-term exchanges to better connect industrial ecosystems in Europe. The project will focus on skills, processes and services related to digital transformation - both in terms of the cluster organisation itself and its members, to be able to support them in successfully accessing global markets.

Your advantage as company, cluster or scale-up organisation: As a participant in the organised business delegations, you will not only get to know innovative regions, take part in renowned events and individual B2B meetings free of charge, but also receive financial support to offset your travel costs.