Matchmaking Services for the Agri-Food and Retail Sectors

Matchmaking helps with the collaboration between different actors – exchanging ideas, co-creating solutions, sharing responsibilities, and moving together to a common goal. Naturally, agri-food and retail SMEs can be busy enough with their own line of work, sometimes lacking time, resources or network connections to commit to the search of partners. Matchmaking services take care of finding and connecting suitable organisations so that they can focus directly on the development of their energy community!

What are matchmaking services?

Matchmaking services help organisations find the right partners to work with. They reduce the time and effort needed to identify suitable companies, public authorities, or support bodies. Matchmaking can support the creation of project groups, partnerships, or consortia, and helps to shape interest into an actionable plan with the right partners. This is especially useful for SMEs with limited time and resources.

Matchmaking services in Europe

Several matchmaking services already exist in Europe. The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) organises matchmaking events and supports SMEs in finding business and technology partners, including support for sustainability and energy transition. The EU Network of Clusters connects regional and sectoral clusters and helps companies collaborate across value chains. Other initiatives, such as the Smart Cities Marketplace, combine technical assistance with matchmaking, including links to financing bodies and public authorities. Together, these services provide practical support for collaboration across sectors and regions.

Matchmaking services under AGRICOM

AGRICOM has a strong understanding of both the agri-food and linked retail sector and the technical assistance needed to develop energy communities. This combination allows AGRICOM to work with SMEs and to understand their practical constraints.

Many companies are interested in energy transition activities but cannot spend significant time searching for partners or navigating complex processes. For this reason, AGRICOM will provide matchmaking services as part of its technical assistance. The goal is to make sure that the benefits of engaging the supply chain are fully realised. AGRICOM’s matchmaking services are designed around the limited availability of SMEs. Our aim is to reduce the effort needed to find partners and supports faster group formation.

Through AGRICOM matchmaking, interested stakeholders can express their wish to either form a new group or join an existing group of agri-food and retail companies to establish an energy community. AGRICOM will also work with well-known European networks such as the Enterprise Europe Network and the EU Network of Clusters to find partners.

By combining sector knowledge, technical assistance, and existing networks, AGRICOM helps agri-food and retail companies work together on energy transition activities in a practical and time-efficient way.

This content was created as part of the activities of the EU project AgriCom, co-funded by the EU Single Market Programme (SMP COSME) under grant number 101241510.

The views expressed in this text are the sole responsibility of Th!nk E and and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.