One of the harder parts of my job: knowing that the right collaboration partner exists somewhere in Europe, but having no structured way to find them.
Conferences help, but they're random. LinkedIn is noise. Most EU-funded projects end up collaborating with the same 10 organisations because that's who everyone already knows.
I'm part of EU.FFICIENT, a Horizon Europe project building a free platform that connects engineers, researchers and technical teams across Europe who are actively working in the same domains: mobility, advanced manufacturing, AI/digital, deep tech, HealthTech and clean energy.
The idea is less "networking event" and more structured co-creation, finding people with complementary expertise, initiating joint projects and building the kind of cross-border partnerships that actually move things forward. (If you're interested, you can also check out the platform.)
How do you currently find external collaborators for your teams? Curious what's actually worked.