AEuCC is proud to annouce the award of a new European project under INTERREG Europe programme, named CLAY.
Among its main objectives, AEuCC has to plan and develop projects in the economic, cultural, educational fields, in particular following the guidelines of the European Commission: in the last 3 years, it has carried out an important commitment in this direction, particularly focusing on the programmes Erasmus, Creative Europe, INTERREG Europe and ENPI-Med programs.
In 2016, AEuCC has started the preparation of an INTERREG Europe project, not admitted in the first call, but redefined and re-submitted in 2017, entrusting its leadership to the Umbria Region and identifying as consultant Resolvo (a specialized company based in Florence): in the spring 2018, the CLAY project has been selected and awarded by INTERREG Europe.
CLAY aims at supporting the ceramic sector by prioritising new technologies, strengthening brands and developing new services to maintain competitive advantage and face the challenge of globalisation.
The Artistic Ceramics represents a central part of European tradition, mainly composed by small and micro enterprises that were hit by the economic crisis and low-cost competition.
For the ceramic sector, globalisation represents a challenge but also an opportunity, in this sense the sector, supported by public policies, must improve the way it conceives and develops new products, industrial processes and services, in line with the recent drive towards advanced manufacturing.
The CLAY project gathers 5 regions which have both important ceramics traditions and innovative small and medium enterprises, and uses interregional exchange to identify solutions to the challenge of matching tradition and innovation, by improving regional programmes for innovation.
The main goal of the project is to show that product, process design and innovation can keep tradition and modernity visible and competitive in today’s world. The overall objective is to ensure that policy instruments are adapted to support the ceramic sector to flourish in the contemporary global environment.
The partners of CLAY are: Umbria Region (Italy); AEuCC (legally based in Spain); Regional Development Agency South West Oltenia (Romania); Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia (Finlandia); CTCV – Technological Centre for Ceramics and Glass (Portogallo); Association for the development and promotion of the european ceramic center (Francia).
The duration of the project is 5 years (3 years of project plus 2 years of implementation of actions).
The kick-off took place on 26-27-28, 2018, in Assisi (Italy).
Read the kick off report >