The European Cluster Alliance is an open platform that was established to maintain a permanent policy dialogue at EU level among national and regional public authorities responsible for developing cluster policies and managing cluster programmes in their countries.

This policy dialogue aims at raising the level of excellence and efficiency of cluster policies in Europe which will result in the creation of more competitive world-class clusters in Europe, as recently proposed by the Commission Communication on clusters.

The European Cluster Alliance was founded in September 2006 by the partners involved in 4 cluster policy projects funded under the PRO INNO Europe® initiative of the European Commission. It has been welcomed by the Competitiveness Council as in important European initiative to foster cluster cooperation.

The European Cluster Alliance is much more than just another cluster networking project. Since January 2008, it is open to external public cluster-relevant organisations in Europe willing to share experiences and to develop joint activities with the other partners of the Alliance.

The European Cluster Alliance aims at becoming the single place at EU level for elaborating new ideas and practical tools for improving cluster policy in Europe and for fostering European cooperation at policy level that will facilitate the further development of more competitive world-class clusters in Europe.