INNO-Nets - Better policies and instruments in support of world-class clusters

The European Cluster Alliance, as established under PRO INNO Europe® in 2006, is increasingly recognised as a unique point of reference at EU level to discuss, analyse and jointly develop policy actions and practical tools aiming to foster cluster development in Europe. It brings together more than 50 public organisations such as ministries, regional governments and innovation agencies and is open for other partners willing to share their experience and participate in the Alliance’s work. So far, 10 other public organisations have joined the European Cluster Alliance as associated partners.

The European Council of March 2008 identified the creation of world-class clusters in Europe as a matter of priority. To address this challenge the European Cluster Alliance will be further developed with the view to better adapting cluster policies in Europe to the need of a stronger internationalisation of clusters and their activities. In this respect, the practical experience from the Europe INNOVA cluster networks needs also to be taken into account.

Public policies play an important role to facilitate clusters and cluster excellence in Europe, by improving framework conditions and providing specific support to cluster initiatives. A recent policy survey performed by the European Cluster Observatory has found that 26 EU countries, including 4 EU-associated countries, have at least one national programme to support cluster development and half of them also promote cross border activities. The European Cluster Alliance has contributed to trans-national policy learning in the field of cluster policies and helped to improve their efficiency. The new and enhanced challenge is to search for better ways to promote world-class excellence of clusters in Europe and to design better policies and instrument in support of this.

The 4 INNO-Net projects forming the core of the European Cluster Alliance will end in the second half of 2009. In order to keep the momentum reached by this initiative and to add further impetus to it, it is proposed to maintain the European Cluster Alliance with the view to promote the internationalisation of cluster activities in Europe. This is a cornerstone of the European strategy in support of world-class clusters in Europe.

Cluster internationalisation within Europe and beyond may take many different forms, ranging from facilitation of international business linkages for cluster firms to cooperation agreements between managed clusters. The objective of this action is to develop new or better policies and instruments to incentivise all forms of international cluster activities in view to promote excellence though strong international linkages with the best available sources of knowledge and technical centres worldwide, such as top research institutes and infrastructures or specialised technology and innovation parks. This work includes identifying difficulties, risks and legal barriers that may discourage internationalisation of cluster activities as well as analysing different practices and incentives designed to foster such efforts in Europe and abroad.

With this in mind, a new “INNO-Net” on “Better policies and instruments in support of world-class clusters” shall be launched through an open Call for proposals under the PRO INNO Europe® initiative. Based on previous work under PRO INNO Europe® and Europe INNOVA, specific areas have been identified where progress should be made as a matter of priority, with the view to maintain and further develop the “European Cluster Alliance”.