NextMove
NextMove is the French cluster organization of the automotive & mobility sector, based in the scientifically and technologically advanced regions of the Ile de France and Normandy. These regions compose a territory historically defined as the “Mobility Valley” as they represent around 70% of the French R&D potential in the automotive and mobility sector, where innovative mobility solutions are invented, developed, tested, and industrialized to meet the future challenges. The local ecosystem consists of international leader groups (Renault, Stellantis, Valeo, Forvia, STMicroelectronics, etc.), many innovative startups and SMEs, academics, research centers, and local public authorities. NextMove’s role is to federate this network of more than 500 members and to support the local actors and their innovations by representing this ecosystem and its interests on the European and international level.
Why invest in this cross-border partnership?
In a Europe in full transition, no one can do it alone: we need to act as part of a European economy, and this is exactly the strategy that our two clusters have embraced since our first common activities in 2016.
RAI and NextMove both have a head start in the industry: after 9 years of culturally rich and highly inspiring collaboration, the two clusters are now each the main trusted partners in their ecosystems.
Some examples of previous collaboration opportunities
Since the start of our collaboration, our joint activities have focused on two areas: participation in collaborative innovation projects and facilitating business for our networks.
Regarding the first, RAI and NextMove have been involved in two European projects funded by the COSME program, which ran between 2018 and 2022, and aimed at strengthening cluster management excellence while facilitating strategic connections between clusters and specialized ecosystems across Europe.
These two projects, RECiPE4Mobility and REMOBILISE, have given teams from both clusters the opportunity to discuss their respective difficulties as well as successes, in order to identify best practices and enable both organizations to upskill and offer high added-value support to their respective members.
Another objective of these projects was to enable our networks to benefit directly from the project's activities, such as trainings, support in identifying European funding, as well as missions to discover the mobility ecosystems of the other partners active in the project: for this purpose, visits to the French, Portuguese, Hungarian and Dutch ecosystems have been organized.
In terms of facilitating business opportunities for our members, the two clusters implement regular discovery missions to allow their respective networks to visit the other ecosystem: on each occasion, an enriching three-day study tour on a specific mobility topic is organized with a targeted program of site visits, events, and discussions. The objective? To forge links between the Dutch and the French ecosystems’ representatives to identify and develop concrete areas for collaboration.
The last edition of this activity was proposed on the occasion of the Hyvolution trade fair in January 2024: bringing together the major European players in the hydrogen sector, we created a very rich program, working hand in hand. Social events (company visits, dinners, etc.) generally attract more companies. It didn't take long to see the results: more than 30 people joined us, instead of the twenty or so we had planned. This is proof that we need to go beyond trade shows to create real connections within our ecosystem.
Which hints for the future?
There are some objectives on the future joint roadmap: To engage in a potential next joint project financed on European funds, to develop free and high added-value activities for our networks; Encourage the development of international research and development projects between our networks; Continue offering missions to discover our ecosystems in both directions; Coordinate our presence at international trade fairs to maximize networking opportunities for our members.
A lot has already been done, but this is only the beginning! The quality of joint activities is only meant to increase thanks to the accumulated experience, feedback from our members who benefit from these actions, and thanks to the solid partnership in place and the strong knowledge of our respective networks, needs, and strengths.
This article was previously published in the RAI Automotive Industry Magazine about the Dutch automotive industry. Want to read more?
