Moravian Aerospace Cluster: Czech leader in aviation (3. strana)

6 aerospace industry l institution l agencies in being able to meet a potential customer directly at minimal expense in terms of both time and money. The cluster aids in this effort in several ways: by supporting participation in B2B events, by organising targeted missions, and by negotiating on behalf of individual member companies. B2B contracting exchange events are organised all around the globe, making for a very efficient method of coming into direct contact with the purchasing officers and decision makers of major aircraft manufacturers. With the events lasting only two days, the companies get to use their time efficiently and can discuss specific inquiries and contract offers. MAC has decided to focus on supporting these events in particular and also takes an active part in them; we collect contacts and inquiries and offer the abilities of our members to specific customers. The aerospace industry is specific in its system of supplier qualification. Most customers want to take at least a brief look at the company and its production before further negotiations. MAC therefore tries to organise so-called incoming missions where companies can present themselves directly on their own premises. This also has the added benefit of eliminating costs for travel and so on. The cluster has already organised a number of these missions with delegations from countries such as Italy, Canada, Brazil, Poland, etc. We have achieved great results by cooperating with state institutions such as CzechInvest and CzechTrade, as well as embassies. These organisations are capable of providing the necessary funds and organisational support these events require. We are glad to report that the majority of foreign participants in these missions have been very pleasantly surprised by the quality of production and the technological advancement of Czech companies. Working with embassies and foreign representatives of CzechInvest and CzechTrade, the cluster also organises targeted missions directly to customers. These events are difficult in terms of organisation and it takes a great deal of time to arrange meetings with key individuals at the selected companies. However, the fact that a company is willing to invest time and money into a personal meeting directly at the customer's facility helps negotiations progress much more quickly. These targeted missions will be one of the cluster's priorities for upcoming years. When organising these missions (both foreign and incoming), the cluster also draws on its membership of EACP (European Aerospace Cluster Partnership), a collective of 45 European aerospace clusters. EACP represents a network of over 4,500 companies and 450 research organisations in the aerospace industry. The partnership thus reaches almost every company in Europe and organising missions becomes much easier through collaboration with individual clusters. CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS special 2020 T+T Technika a trh Through its activities and network of contacts, MAC gains access to a great deal of information about current trends and developments in aviation. We try to share this information with our members and help them keep pace with the competition. The hottest topics are currently additive production, Industry 4.0, electrification, etc. We have organised or helped organise conferences and meetings on these topics. Examples of these are the conferences "Cooperation of Aerospace Companies on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform" and "Additive Production in Aviation". As was mentioned before, the cluster organises an internal "Quality Working Group" which creates a platform for quality managers to exchange experience. The group deals with the implementation and sustainability of aerospace certifications such as AS9100, NADCAP and OEM Approvals. Through this, we try to maintain a standard of quality of development and production across member companies and work to increase their competitiveness. CLUSTER PROJECTS The cluster itself works on several international projects. These projects are generally focused on supporting cluster members through internationalisation and by working on innovative projects. MAC is currently a partner in two such projects, namely EACP-EUROSME and PIMAP+. The former is a project initiated by a consortium of 6 clusters from Italy (Naples), Germany (Hamburg), France (Toulouse), the UK (Preston) and the Czech Republic (Zlín). The goal is to create at least 4 innovative projects worth a total of at least EUR 20 million. The partners have created a long-term strategy for interconnecting companies from these countries with regard to the RIS3 strategies used in individual regions. By analysing common trends and RIS3 strategies, the partners identified 4 strategic topics with potential for creating innovative projects. The topics are "Aircraft of the Future", "Industry 4.0", "Earth Observation" and "UAV technologies". MAC is responsible for the topic "Aircraft of the Future". Analysis of the capabilities of individual companies in these regions and the subsequent interlinking of these companies has helped find suitable topics for joint projects, such as "Development of certification-ready, fully electric/hybrid propulsion for aircraft" or "Unmanned cargo aircraft". These activities make the work of innovative companies much easier, since we are able to find and recommend specific partners with exactly the right kind of technological know-how. The consortium also helps companies with project planning and preparation (creation of feasibility studies or business plans) but also with securing funding. Funds can come from either public financing (Horizon 2020 programmes, in particular) or from private investors. The latter project, PIMAP+, is also run by 6 partners, this time from France (Bordeaux), Sweden (Falun), Portugal (Porto), Italy (Milan), Finland (Joensuu) and the Czech Republic (Zlín). The project is focused on the internationalisation of companies on markets outside of Europe. 4 key countries were selected: Canada, the USA, Japan and China. The consortium is crossdisciplinary, i.e. does not consist of solely aerospace clusters. The project will help find strategic partners in the key countries, resulting in the conclusion of an agreement on future cooperation on specific projects. Emphasis is again placed on finding partners and customers in the selected countries and applying