On 28 October, cluster representatives will be joined by key public authorities, academia, and companies at the Cluster Summit Finland 2025 to explore cooperation opportunities and build a robust RDI landscape for the future. The inspiring day offers engaging workshops and keynote speeches illustrating regional cluster success stories and describing collaboration with businesses from start-ups to SMEs to multinationals. The Cluster Summit Finland 2025 will be held in English. All C2Lab participants are warmly invited to join the Summit, immerse themselves in discussions on cluster policy, and learn about Finnish good practices.

The C2Lab itself is a hands-on workshop where you will have the opportunity to meet new collaboration partners, discuss project ideas, and initiate partnerships – for example, to apply together for a European call. Participants could either join with a concrete project proposal or offer their expertise and knowledge by joining forces with others.

Additionally, the Clusters meet Regions in Vaasa, which will take place on 24-25 September, provides an opportunity to start discussions on collaborations and continue them in Kuopio. All participants are warmly invited to join the Clusters meet Regions. You can find more information and the registration for the Clusters meet Regions in Vaasa here.

More information on the Cluster Summit Finland 2025 will be available soon. 

Registration

Please register here via the B2Match platform. 

The registration form is both for the attendance of the Cluster Summit Finland and the C2Lab. You can indicate in the form whether you will attend one or both of the events. 

Who can attend the C2Lab?

The C2Lab is for companies, cluster organisations, research organisations, actors from the civil society, and other interested entities who want to join European project consortia. It is open to participants from the European Union and the SMP/COSME countries.

What are the topics of the C2Lab?

At the C2Lab, any topic is welcome and can be proposed during the registration. Given the expertise of the hosts, this edition of the C2Lab has already identified the following topics for discussion: 

• Water resilience
• Comprehensive security
• Critical raw materials
• Agrifood and food security
• Digital and AI
• Other / Project ideas submitted by participants.

These focus areas serve as starting points for those participants without any concrete proposals. However, they are not exclusive. The C2Lab welcomes any project idea, indifferent to its focus area. During the registration, participants can submit their ideas and express other topics of interest.  

How does the C2Lab work?

The C2Lab is a co-creation space and counts on your active participation. The aim is to mature project ideas for the indicated challenges in discussions with the other participants and build a proposal together. The work initiated at the C2Lab should be further implemented after the lab itself. For the work at the lab, we will provide you with a project canvas and facilitators to help and guide the process.

1. Register, choose a topic, and set up your profile 

When registering for the event on the B2Match platform, participants will choose a topic or submit a project idea they want to work on. 

2. Join the preparatory activities 

Before the in-person event, you have different options to make the most of your participation in the C2Lab: 

Share your ideas in the marketplace

Participants are invited to present their ideas or capabilities they can offer for new projects in the so-called “marketplace”. This page is visible to all confirmed participants. They will be able to browse and see what the others bring to the table.

Virtual networking and booking online meetings

Participants have the option to invite others to bilateral meetings to speak about collaboration opportunities, which can be further explored at the C2Lab. These meetings will take place online on the B2Match platform between registration and the in-person workshop.

Online pitching sessions

Confirmed participants are invited to join two online pitching sessions taking place on 18 September, 10:00 CET, and 9 October, 10:00 CET. The participants have the chance to introduce themselves personally, and potentially any project ideas, to the other attendees. This opportunity is a complementary activity to enhance the experience at the C2Lab and to help define working groups.

3. In-person C2Lab

Participants will meet in Kuopio for the Cluster Summit on 28 October (optional) and the C2Lab on 29-30 October 2025. Participants will divide into working groups according to their topic interests and initiate the development of a join project. Each working group will be guided by a facilitator. 

The goal is to have a project roadmap at the end of the C2Lab that the teams will be able to further implement and bring to a public call or alternative funding opportunities.

Agenda

Check out the agenda for the C2Lab and Cluster Summit Finland 2025.

REGISTRATION

Travel information

Kuopio can be easily reached via train or plane from Helsinki. Finnair offers four daily connections (around 1 hour); and there are 7 daily rail connections between the two cities (around 4 hours). To make the return as easily as possible, the hosts will provide a bus service to the airport and train station on 30 October to catch the flight at 14:00 or train at 14:11 to Helsinki. 

Please note that the ECCP does not cover travel and accommodation costs and that the participants are responsible for booking their own travel and accommodation. You can find valuable information to plan your stay in this travel document provided by the hosts.

Info Session 

The ECCP team hosted an info session on 4 September 2025, 10:00 CET, to explain the event format and give details about the agenda and the opportunities for the participants. The info session is open to anyone interested in attending the C2Lab.

Register to join the info session. 

C2Lab Discussion Group

We invite you to join the C2Lab discussion group on LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest info on the C2Lab, get in touch with a larger group of people looking for collaboration, and discuss topics close to your heart.

REGISTRATION