In episode #250 of The Grant – the EU funding podcast, I’m joined by Veronica Gallo and Isabella Pipa from Danitacom – the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Denmark.

A Chamber of Commerce is normally associated with business development, trade, networking and helping companies enter new markets. So why would an organisation like Danitacom become involved in EU-funded projects? That is the question behind this episode. Veronica and Isabella explain how Danitacom’s European activities have developed along two main tracks. One is Erasmus+ mobility, where the Chamber helps students, teachers and other groups coming to Denmark with internships, company visits, school contacts and complete mobility programmes. The other is participation in Erasmus+ cooperation projects, particularly around entrepreneurship, sustainability and the creative industries.

We also look at how this work has affected Danitacom itself. EU projects have helped create new roles and expand the project and mobility teams, while the networks developed through individual projects increasingly spill over into other parts of the organisation. A strong example is Art Forward, a two-year Erasmus+ project on sustainability in the creative industries. The project brought together partners from Denmark, Italy, France and Türkiye and created research, company cases, training activities and learning material for students. But the interesting part is what happened around the project itself: schools returned for mobility activities, companies became internship hosts, project contacts fed into other Danitacom activities and partnerships continued beyond the original consortium.

The episode becomes a practical example of how EU projects can be more than isolated funded activities.

They can become part of how an organisation builds networks, develops competencies and creates new connections between its different activities.

Time codes:

01:39 Guest introduction and fly in