The key to strengthening clusters in Europe lies in striving for excellence both at the level of cluster policies and at the level of cluster management. This was the issue discussed by the European Cluster Policy Group, which met for the third time in Brussels on 28-29 January 2010 to formulate policy recommendations to be addressed to the European Commission and EU Members States.
Tea Petrin, Chair of the high-level Group, stressed that policy-makers need feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of funds allocated to the support of cluster programmes. For this reason, evidence-based information on cluster performance is essential, and can be identified via quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Therefore, a strong effort at European and national level would be needed to improve the availability of cluster-specific data on social capital, innovation and economic outcomes.
The Group called for policies improving cluster-specific framework conditions such as access to human resources, access to knowledge, entrepreneurship, and inter-company collaboration as well as stimulating cluster innovation by intelligent demand and smart regulation, taking into account the specificity and needs of the sector/industry in which a cluster operates. The Group recommended that concrete tools for enhancing excellence of cluster initiatives be designed such as benchmarking of clusters and cluster organisations or training on good cluster management. The Group also stressed the importance of developing principles of good cluster policy implemented by Member States, and common methods of evaluating the effectiveness of public actions in support of clusters.
The European Cluster Policy Group will present its final report and recommendations in September 2010.
The key to strengthening clusters in Europe lies in striving for excellence both at the level of cluster policies and at the level of cluster management. This was the issue discussed by the European Cluster Policy Group, which met for the third time in Brussels on 28-29 January 2010 to formulate policy recommendations to be addressed to the European Commission and EU Members States.
Tea Petrin, Chair of the high-level Group, stressed that policy-makers need feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of funds allocated to the support of cluster programmes. For this reason, evidence-based information on cluster performance is essential, and can be identified via quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Therefore, a strong effort at European and national level would be needed to improve the availability of cluster-specific data on social capital, innovation and economic outcomes.
The Group called for policies improving cluster-specific framework conditions such as access to human resources, access to knowledge, entrepreneurship, and inter-company collaboration as well as stimulating cluster innovation by intelligent demand and smart regulation, taking into account the specificity and needs of the sector/industry in which a cluster operates. The Group recommended that concrete tools for enhancing excellence of cluster initiatives be designed such as benchmarking of clusters and cluster organisations or training on good cluster management. The Group also stressed the importance of developing principles of good cluster policy implemented by Member States, and common methods of evaluating the effectiveness of public actions in support of clusters.
The European Cluster Policy Group will present its final report and recommendations in September 2010. 
