Meet the EU|BIC Ecosystem Discovery Mission Delegation: Who's Going?

Of the 20 organisations travelling to China this September, one member has personal experience of around 30 China visits over the past 15 years. Another, a business incubator from Tripoli, Lebanon, is going with no prior China experience at all. That range, from seasoned China hands to complete first-timers, is roughly what the whole delegation looks like.

The roster

The 20-strong delegation splits into three groups: seven certified EU|BICs, four EU|BIC Associate Members, and nine startups. They come from ten countries: Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Czechia, Switzerland, Croatia, France, and Lebanon.

The seven certified EU|BICs are: BIC Araba, BIC Albacete, and BIC Euronova (Spain), the Central Bohemian Innovation Center (Czechia), Startup Leiria (Portugal), CimArk (Switzerland) and FILSE (Italy). BIC Euronova already runs innovation nodes in Beijing and Shenzhen; BIC Albacete’s team accounts for most of those 30 prior trips to China. The four EU|BIC Associates are Fabbrica Italiana dell’Innovazione (Italy), which already runs a China cooperation channel through SPICI; Inventya (UK), a commercialisation and scale-up consultancy; BICRO Biocentre (Croatia), a biotech infrastructure operator; and BIAT, the Tripoli-based incubator making its first trip.

Ten startups are travelling alongside them: DermaSense AI (Italy, AI-assisted dermatology diagnostics, supported by EU|BIC FILSE), Prime ZE (Spain, reusable aluminium event cups, supported by EU|BIC Euronova), SenTech AI (Netherlands, wearable mental-wellness sensors), The Pulse (Spain, AI workforce-wellbeing analytics, supported by EU|BIC Araba), Mello (Spain, construction-project data platforms, supported by EU|BIC Albacete), UB Robotics (Portugal, autonomy software for civil ground robots, supported by EU|BIC Startup Leiria), Synapse Edge (UK, industrial IoT and digital twins) and Pronize (Netherlands, B2B sourcing and production software). A tenth participant, SPARC+CM (France), rounds out the group.

What they’re chasing

Their reasons for coming cluster into a few groups. Some are after component suppliers, contract manufacturers and ODM partners: motors, sensors, batteries, aluminium tooling, electronics assembly. Others want to meet research institutes, CROs and clinics for pilot and validation work. Companies are interested in learning about corporate pilots inside large manufacturers and infrastructure operators, testing whether AI-driven workforce analytics and construction-data platforms hold up on live Chinese sites. And the EU|BIC community members, almost without exception, list the same two things: investor meetings, and a closer look at how China connects public funding, industrial policy and company-building, benchmarking they can take back to their own regional programmes.

The itinerary is built around testing those goals directly rather than just observing them. Day two puts the delegation inside UNNC for the Global Pitch 2026 roadshow and matchmaking session; day four runs a formal exchange and matchmaking event hosted by the Wenzhou municipal government; day five closes in Shanghai with a further exchange event alongside Plug and Play China. Three matchmaking sessions in five days, each aimed at a different slice of the delegation’s list.