The European Union (EU) has been in the forefront of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in recent years, fostering European research, technology and innovative businesses globally and promoting cooperation for that end.
In that context, the EU has launched, through Horizon 2020, a pilot initiative to setup a network of centres in Brazil, China and USA that would help connect and support European companies and research and technology organisations to those markets.
These centres were expected to rely upon a business model that would ensure its financial sustainability in the longer term while building upon existing EU Member States-related initiatives already in place in those markets.
For China, the ERICENA project (European Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence in China) was approved under Horizon 2020 with the purpose of setting up this centre in China. ERICENA project was implemented by a consortium of 13 organisations, from different EU Members States and from China, all of them with a consolidated know-how and experience in the Chinese market.
As a broader outcome of a collaborative action between ERICENA and its two sister projects for Brazil and USA (CEBRABIC and NearUS, respectively), the common brand of ENRICH was created to embrace the centres. ENRICH stands for European Network of Research and Innovation Centres and Hubs. The specific centre created in China was then named as ENRICH in China.
This ENRICH brand became a protected trademark at the European level and allowed for ENRICH in China to start is operation through the setup of a Project Office in Beijing, at the EU SME Centre facilities in October 2017, and of a Liaison Office in Brussels, at the EBN facilities, in April 2018 – on another collaborative action between ERICENA, CEBRABIC and NearUS.
ERICENA was substantially impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a collaborative project with China, it was one of the first initiatives that needed to cope with the restrictions arising from the pandemic, which led to a severe decrease in the income generated by ENRICH in China in 2020 and also prevented the completion of the full separation process between the project (ERICENA) and the centre (ENRICH in China), as the recruitment of personnel and the setup of an independent legal entity could not be completed within the project time frame.
Nevertheless, at the end of ERICENA project, ENRICH in China can be considered to be a recognizable and trustful brand among the actors of both European and Chinese innovation and business community, having built in the last 4 years an extensive track record of successful and high-quality services and activities delivered to a comprehensive group of stakeholders, partners and clients.
With the support of ERICENA project, ENRICH in China was able to mobilize and engage the European and Chinese innovation and business communities, fostering mutual interaction and, acting as a facilitator, to promote new business opportunities and research and innovation collaborative projects.
Therefore, and despite the setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, ERICENA managed to lay the foundations for the continuity of ENRICH in China operation, services and activities, even beyond the project lifetime frame.
