Insights about the Cypriot ecosystem

On April 3, 2023, EIT Manufacturing South East along with CYENS Center of Excellence, hosted its first Info Day in Cyprus at the A.G. Leventis Gallery in Nicosia. The event brought together more than 60 participants to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the Cypriot manufacturing ecosystem. 

Participants gave their feedback via a platform in the last session of the event, and we had some great results coming from it. Some key results are described below: 

Most participants came from RTOs, followed by SMEs and Universities/ Corporation

The top three strengths of the Cypriot ecosystem identified by participants were:

• Geography (global supply chain)
• Early-stage innovation
• Collaboration with foreign innovation actors

Main areas for improvement identified by participants included: 

• The commercialization of new products and services 
• Access to Funding capital 
• Acceleration of technological innovation 

• Support for entrepreneurship 

Participants identified the following types of support as being most needed: 

• Identification of end users with innovation challenges 

• General support for startups 

The main pillars of EIT Manufacturing that participants believed could be most helpful to the Cypriot ecosystem were: 

• Business creation 
• Innovation 

Overall, it is profound that the Cyprus ecosystem is looking for more commercialization and connections to the rest of Europe. There are some Cyprus-based Manufacturing companies but most of them are concentrated on IT and the digital sector. Access to financial aid and investment is something the ecosystem needs in order to develop and for SMEs and startups to create a financial sustainable environment and then proceed to the next steps. The EIT Manufacturing Info Day in Cyprus was a success in bringing together key stakeholders from the manufacturing ecosystem to discuss ways to enhance collaboration and innovation, also by presenting the capability and opportunities of the EIT Manufacturing ecosystem.