Working Area 1

Working area 1: Measuring the economic impact of cluster policies and programmes

The main purpose of this working area is to provide policy makers with a fact-based tool for prioritizing resources to clusters and cluster policy based on analytical work performed within the BSR INNONet. The tool consists of 2 elements – benchmarking cluster performance and benchmarking cluster-specific framework conditions/cluster policy.

Activities:

- Define a number of clear and measurable objectives for assessing the impact of cluster policies and programmes on the economic development of a region (or state);
- Check past and current efforts and practices developed internationally in this domain;
- Define the parameters and identify the necessary data that should be used;
- Collect data from at least 5 regions that have already implemented cluster policies, and test the methodology. Fine-tune the method and analyse the results obtained;
- Propose policy recommendations.

Expected results:

- A validated methodology that is ready for application by any region;
- Report on case studies;
- Policy recommendations for further action at European, national and regional level.

The leadership of working area 1 is assigned to BSR InnoNet.