IDEALIST
Project IDEALIST Aims to Strengthen the resilience of European SME
14 partners have come together to launch the IDEALIST project led by Pôle CIMES, under the auspices of Horizon Europe, the EU's key funding programme for research and innovation.
This Coordination & Support Action project seeks to address the urgent challenges faced by SMEs in the Energy-Intensive Industries, Aerospace and Defence, and Mobility & Ground Transportation sectors. The project aims at promoting resilience, sustainable practices, and advanced technological adoption in the face of global disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts. IDEALIST budget is around 2.3M€ and duration is about 36 month thus ending in November 2026.
Objective and Vision
The main objective is to empower SMEs within these crucial industrial ecosystems to not only anticipate and withstand unexpected global challenges but to emerge stronger and more competitive. The project focuses on three pivotal areas:
• Strategic Foresight: Developing tools and methodologies for SMEs to better predict and prepare for future challenges, transforming uncertainty into a strategic advantage.
• Technology Uptake: Facilitating the integration of advanced technologies within traditional SMEs, fostering partnerships that bridge the gap between innovation leaders and broader industry sectors.
• Supply Chain Resilience: Identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities in supply chains to reduce the impact of external shocks, ensuring a more stable and robust industrial base.
A Collaborative Approach to Innovation At the heart of IDEALIST lies the commitment to collaboration and community building. Through pilot projects and the innovative Hack&Match method, the project will encourage cross-sectoral partnerships, leveraging the AGORA platform to support matchmaking and network strengthening among Europe's manufacturing companies.
A Call to Action IDEALIST represents a unique opportunity for SMEs across Europe to join forces in addressing common challenges and seizing new opportunities for growth and innovation. The project invites stakeholders from all participating sectors to engage with its activities, contribute to its objectives, and benefit from its outcomes.
Consortium
The IDEALIST consortium comprises organisations from 6 European countries and Ukraine, representing thousands of SMEs across the targeted sectors. An added value to the consortium, the presence of EIT Manufacturing providing the networking platform AGORA.
Involvement of Albatros GIE
The GIE Albatros is involved in several IDEALIST activities such as :
• Holding strategic foresight workshops for members of the GIE
• Organization of Learning Expeditions (factory visits)
• Technical watch on rare materials and critical components for the aeronautics & space and ground transportation sectors
• Participation in online events on the AGORA platform (technical monitoring webinars, Hack&Match, networking)
• Writing an innovation handbook for industrial SMEs about the emerging advanced manufacturing technologies
• Disseminating zero-defect and zero-waste manufacturing applied to composite materials by managing a stand at JEC WORLD PARIS 2025 showcasing start-ups and tech-savvy SME.
List of current services
Register by contacting by email Maxime at Albatros GIE
Learning Expedition #4 – 29th and 30th of October 2025 - Dresden , Germany
Theme: Raw Materials. Activities: technical conferences, networking with industrials, visit of a main sealant factory. Travel voucher available for manufacturing SME. Event hosted by GKZ and CCB clusters. Objective: Start building SME alliances by discovering other industrial ecosystems, creating connections with other users of advanced technologies to share practices and needs Target audience: R&D engineers, curious salespeople, innovation directors, factory managers
Learning Expedition #5 – Summer 2026 - Nantes, France
Theme: Additive manufacturing and hybrid processes. Activities: strategic foresight workshop, B2B matchmaking (bilateral meetings), visit of aerospace factories. Travel voucher available for manufacturing SME. Event hosted by Albatros cluster. Objective: Start building SME alliances by discovering other industrial ecosystems, creating connections with other users of advanced technologies to share practices and needs Target audience: R&D engineers, curious salespeople, innovation directors, factory managers
Expert-To-Expert Webinar #4 on Energy Efficiency – 30th of September 2025 from 15:00 to 16:00 CET.
Based on a peer-to-peer approach, this webinar will allow professionals to explore the opportunities and challenges in the field of energy efficiency for factories. Through expert’s insights, attendees will dive into use cases and best practices.
Hack&Match #3 – Advanced technologies for energy savings – 18th and 19th of November 2025
Online event to boost technology uptake by traditional manufacturing SMEs, in a transparent and engaging manner. Blended approach combining hackathon-style problem solving with targeted matchmaking between manufacturing SMEs & solution providers. Companies can showcase their technical challenge on energy savings and energy efficiency. Companies and Research & Technology Organization can propose a technical solution. If the solution identified is convincing, the solution is then developed within a bilateral POC. Event managed by DITECFER cluster.
- Call for challenges: from the 1st of September to the 3rd of October 2025
- Call for solutions: from the 6th of October to the 7th of November
- Hack & Match on the 18th and 19th of November 2025, Save-the date !
Previous services
- Start-up and SME pavilion at composites trade-fair JEC World Paris 2025, France
Date: March 04-06, 2025. Objective: Showcase innovative technologies and industrial solutions in development to find potential clients at EU level
Target audience: Small businesses that usually cannot participate to JEC due to a lack of marketing budget e.g., start-ups and young innovative companies
- Strategic Foresight with 4CF specialist consultancy, Online
Date: 3 half-day workshops via video conference spread over the second semester of 2024
Objective: Identify trends in mobility industrial ecosystem, their potential disruptions, and develop your roadmap to "turn uncertainty into strategic advantage." Approach: Focus-groups between CEOs. Target audience: industrial companies of transport & automotive sectors. Strategy-level executives (CEO, CTO, marketing director, R&D director) Contacts : Managed by expert company 4CF
- Learning expedition #2 on the theme of blockchain and AI for industrials in Tuscany, Italy. November 20-21, 2024 Hosted by the DITECFER rail cluster Activities: a pitch session for promotion of participants, AI and Blockchain workshops to explore potential use cases, and visits of 2 factories
- Learning expedition #3 on theme of digital technologies for workshops and drones. June 11-12 2025, Silesia, Poland. Hosted by SAC with support of MLK. Activities: visit of factories, panel discussions on advanced technologies, strategic foresight workshop, pitching session.
For more details about the IDEALIST project (Horizon Europe G.A. no. 101138366), its objectives, and how to get involved : https://www.idealist-project.eu/