Took place on December 15 in Santiago de Compostela (Spain) the second Transnational Conference on "Clusters, networks and policies for innovation clusters in Europe", organized by the Ministry of Industry and Economy of Galicia by the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion (IGAPE ) under Project ATCLUSTERS.
2012 will be the year for DG Enterprise and Industry that will mark the start of a new policy, namely better promoting SME internationalisation through clusters.
New Cluster Concepts in Support of emerging Issues and cross-sectoral Themes
How can clusters live up to the needs of future markets? How can they deliver the goods and services to match the requirements of global trends such as ageing societies or climate change? Against the backdrop of the overall cluster policy trends at EU level, the conference aims at exploring both the challenges and the potentials related to these emerging issues for innovation in clusters.
The European Commission is calling for expressions of interest for the constitution of a "European Cluster Cooperation Forum". The Forum will aim to explore how cluster policies and programmes can facilitate and support the development of emerging industries and hence help create new competitive advantages for Europe. It will have a maximum of 15 members, including a mix of policy makers and industry experts (including clusters managers). The Forum will operate from January 2012 to August 2013, and will hold four meetings during this period.
SME internationalisation through clusters between EU and China to gain momentum
On Wednesday 28 September 2011, the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission hosted an informal meeting with a Chinese delegation led by the Torch High Technology Development Centre of China's Ministry of Science and Technology to explore scope for future cooperation in support of SME internationalisation through clusters.
TACTICS partners /ECA will gather on 20-21 October 2011, in Warsaw, Poland, on the occasion of the conference “Strengthening Cluster Policy Cooperation in Europe – looking ahead to a new policy agenda” they have initiated.
This event is organised by PARP in collaboration with the Polish Ministry of Economy, under the Polish Presidency of the EU Council .
The main objective of this cluster conference is to provide an active debate on how to improve future cluster policies in Europe.
The first ECA one-day workshop will be held in Brussels on Thursday 1st July, animated by Michel Ganoote (OSEO and TACTICS Project Coordinator) and Marc Pattinson (ECA Secretariat).
The workshop will focus on exploring Funding transnational/ international activities through innovative financing mechanisms: “Concrete policy funding schemes and experiences for transnational cluster cooperation”.
The agenda outlines the subjects to be addressed and they include:
a session identifying transnational cluster policy cooperation opportunities and highlighting examples of cooperation experiences;
exchanges on Innovation Express funding mechanism next call.
The workshop is an ideal opportunity for ECA members to meet and exchange ideas but more importantly to engage in concrete cooperation activities.
To register for this event please contact the ECA Secretariat eca-tactics@proinno-europe.eu
