1. Cluster Partnerships in
Europe and Beyond
09/10/2019
TCI Global Conference
dr Ulla Engelmann
Head of Unit
DG GROW F2 Advanced Technologies,
Clusters & Social Economy
European Commission

2. Investing in a smart,
innovative &
sustainable Industry:
A renewed EU
Industrial Policy
Strategy
Strengthening
Innovation in
Europe's Regions:
Strategies for
resilient, inclusive &
sustainable growth
Europe's next
leaders:
The Start-up & Scale-
up Initiative
EU Policy Framework for Clusters

3. Ongoing European Cluster Initiatives
Clusters as
accelerators
for innovation
& industrial
change
Capacity-
building
Inter-
regional &
international
cluster
cooperation
Cluster
Excellence
Programme

4. Initiatives on Cluster Internationalisation
1. European Cluster Collaboration
Platform
2. International cluster matchmaking
events
3. European Strategic Cluster
Partnerships - Going International
(ESCP-4i)
4. Policy cooperation with third
countries

5. The European Cluster Collaboration Platform-ECCP
Connecting over 1000 Cluster Organisations
5

6. ECCP: 137 non-EU clusters are registered
30 – Americas 18 - Africa, 30 - Asia, 57 - non-EU Europe, 2 - Australia

7. International Cluster Matchmaking events
2019
 EU-Taiwan: 6-8 March, Lyon (France)
Global industrie Fair - 24 EU and 12 TW clusters, 90 C2C and 134 C2B meetings
Focus areas: Manufacturing technologies; Mechanical engineering; Smart
industry and connected factory: robotics, augmented reality, digitalization of
production
 EU-South MED: 9-11 April, Casablanca (Morocco)
Logismed Fair
Focus areas: Transport and logistics; Agriculture and food industry; Energy and
environment; ICT and Textiles
 Europe: 14 May, European Cluster Conference,
Bucharest (Romania)
 EU-Canada: 5-7 June, Toronto (Canada)
in cooperation with Canada’s 5 Superclusters
Focus areas: Advanced manufacturing; digital industries, AI, agro-food and
Blue Growth
Planned for 2020: Japan, Taiwan, Canada, South
Korea, South MED

8. Three generations:
• 15 Cluster Partnerships in
2016-2017
• 25 Cluster Partnerships in
2018-2019
• New call currently open till 30
October 2019 (8,3 Mio€ - 24
partnerships planned)
EU 'Clusters Go International' action
European Strategic Cluster Partnerships for Going International (ESCP-4i)
Partnership are formed by European clusters with the aim to develope and implement joint
internationalisation strategies

9. Policy cooperation with third countries
Administrative Arrangements on Cluster Cooperation
Signed by DG GROW to promote policy exchanges and cluster cooperation with
national authorities from third countries
Objective: facilitate linkages between clusters in mutual economic interest and
better help SMEs find strategic partners
•USA (US Department of Commerce, April 2015)
•Korea (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy & KICOX, May 2018)
•Taiwan (Taipei Representative Office in the EU, June 2018)
•Canada (Department of Industry of Canada, June 2019)
Signed at the 1st EU-Canada Cluster Matchmaking Event, Toronto, 5-7 June

10. Main initiatives for supporting clusters inside Europe
• Cluster facilitated projects , INNOSUP –I
13 ongoing projects (2015-2020) reached out to > 3,000 SMEs & supporting 1700 SMEs
directly, through innovation vouchers (€60,000)
• European Cluster Excellence Initiative
Strenghten cluster management excellence & strategic interregional
partnering to foster cluster capacity building & SME competitiveness
• A new “ClusterXChange” pilot scheme supporting short-term growth exploration visits with
lump sums of up to 1100 EUR to third party cluster members
• European Strategic Cluster Partnerships
for smart specialisation investments
Implementation of 9 cluster partnerships to boost collaboration and investments linked to
smart specialisation & industrial modernisation
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11. Conference site: https://www.eucluster2019.eu/en
See the documents & picture section for video, graphic harvest,
slides, poll results, student blog, pictures…
Feed-back from 450 participants
European Cluster Conference (14-16 May 2019)
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12. Social economy in clusters
• Locally anchored and resilient
• Reinvest profit in social impact
• Create social impact by doing business
• Main drivers for Social innovation
• Source of skilled and motivated staff
 Shared value principle
 Co-creators of competitive and sustainable values
12

13. Towards Joint Cluster Initiatives
- Industry-focused actions guided by joint strategies of specialised SME intermediaries
- Thematically targeted, with cross-regional and cross-sectoral outreach to SMEs
- Channelling scale-up support to groups of SMEs to boost industrial transformation

14. Clusters for green transformation
European Green Deal – Flagship initiative of the new European Commission.
Objective: to transform the economy and strengthen growth and job creation through
achieving sustainability and creating a climate neutral continent.
Clusters are policy accelerators and intermediaries that support companies, especially
SMEs, on working towards a European Green Deal.
Some actions:
The European Cluster Collaboration Platform identified 257 clusters in the field of
environmental technologies
European Resource Efficiency Knowledge Centre (EREK) facilitates collaboration among
SME support organizations, including clusters, in driving a green transformation.
The Low Carbon Business Action stimulates business partnerships and the uptake of
low carbon technologies in Mexico and Brazil. Will be extended to Canada, Chile,
Colombia and Argentina in 2020.

15. European Cluster Conference
Berlin, 10-11 November 2020
More information online
• European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP)
• http://www.clustercollaboration.eu/
• European Strategic Cluster Partnerships for Going International
• https://www.clustercollaboration.eu/eu-cluster-partnerships/escp-4i
• ECCP Cluster Matchmaking Events
• https://www.clustercollaboration.eu/event-calendar/eccp-matchmaking
•Thank You