On January 31st, the two-year project “Exchange of Clusters using Digital Transformation for Excellence – EXCITE” officially concluded. BHV cluster took part as one of six partners — alongside Germany’s “Silicon Saxony” (project coordinator), Poland’s “Mazovia Cluster ICT”, Bulgaria’s “Cluster for Digital Transformation and Innovations”, Spain’s “GAIA” and France’s “Pôle SCS”.
Day-to-day activity within the BHV cluster was coordinated by Minvydas Latauskas, who represented Lithuania at all official consortium meetings — in Dresden, Warsaw, Sofia and Bilbao.
What EXCITE actually achieved
The project’s main instrument was ClusterXchange — a pilot European Commission programme letting cluster staff and members travel to visit member companies of another European cluster, learn about their work, hold B2B meetings and develop partnerships. Over two years, the EXCITE consortium organized:
- three major joint missions (Dresden in autumn 2022, Warsaw–Sofia in spring 2023, Bilbao in November 2023);
- dozens of individual exchanges between cluster members;
- an ongoing working group on digital-transformation solutions and cybersecurity, where BHV experts shared Lithuania’s experience.
How this helped BHV members
Concrete results we see today:
- several BHV cluster members built long-term relationships with cybersecurity companies in the Basque Country’s CYBASQUE sub-cluster;
- real export opportunities emerged into Germany’s industrial sector through the Silicon Saxony network;
- BHV’s position strengthened within the European cluster association network — important for winning further EU-funded projects.
What we’re taking forward
The EXCITE project confirmed what we’ve long felt: Lithuania’s technology ecosystem is mature enough to participate as an equal partner in European cluster work. But we still need more active, systematic ties with mature Western ecosystems.
Right now, together with the team, we’re planning which upcoming European Commission-funded project calls to watch and take part in. We’ll cover that in a separate article with Minvydas — who best understands all the “technical” aspects of cluster work after these two years of experience.
— Marius Pareščius, President of the BHV cluster