April, 12th 2022
The Italian Company Z Lab S.r.l. member of DITECFER cluster as Visiting Organisation (VO) has launched the appeal for a physical exchange in Turkey with Host Organisation (HO) Anatolian Rail Transportation Systems Cluster (ARUS). With the support from the Partnership EXXTRA (EXcellence EXchange and Teaming-up between RAilway clusters and ecosystems), the 5 full-day physical exchange has been organized in the period of 13-19 September, 2021.
The main objective of both organisations was to establish collaborative and business relations among them and share knowledge on innovative solutions/products among ZLab and ARUS cluster members. Starting with the aim to discover Turkish railway market with its Supply chain, the VO has acquired much more than just potential opportunities in joint activities and new contacts of local companies.
The exchange was consisted mainly of two activities for the VO:
- Gathering knowledge about the Turkish Railway market and relevant innovation and business opportunities created by ARUS;
- Introduction to the Turkish railway market segments through specific presentations followed by visits at plants and matchmaking meetings.
The meetings took place in Ankara covering activities at ARUS office during the first day and special visits to industrial plants and each matchmaking meetings to ARUS members in the following days.
Activities and the benefits participants gained through the exchange:
1) During the exchange period were done presentations on areas of competences, specific local market opportunities and projects in which ARUS cluster is involved.
2) The most valuable are considered the visits to companies, Ostim Technical University and Test center (2 per day) were structured according to the areas:
- The use of Space and Defence Technologies
- Engineering opportunities and projects in the Turkish Railways
- Focus on Railway Research
- Needs of Wagons and NDT in the Turkish Railways
- Technology Centres Role in Railway Ecosystem
- Focus on Urban Rail Transport
- Railway Education and Rail Technology
- Test systems in Turkish Rail Industry
- Technology Centers Role in Railway Ecosystem
3) The physical interaction during exchange and support of ARUS cluster has increased the efficiency of communication, relationships and experiences gathered by the SME coming to discover a new market. Many valuable contacts have been gathered as a result of meetings organised and will definitively lead to enforcing of created links.
The participants from both sides in the exchange scheme remained very satisfied and have planned to meet later in a couple of month during Eurasia rail 2021 and in following Railway events in Turkey in coming years. Thanks to the ClusterXChange, ZLab discovered a lot of business opportunities for its company inside the Turkish market and has benefited to establish good relations with Turkish companies at place on its specific areas of expertise.
Thanks to the EXXTRA project, to DITECFER and to ARUS, Z Lab can finally experience first-hand the warm and professional hospitality of Turkish companies. We didn’t sign any contract or agreement during the exchange though we are completely satisfied and we think we have a high possibility to reach to our objectives now as we are in contact with all the companies that we met.