The Alpclusters2020 blog story

JANUARY 2015

AC2020Blog The posts story of AlpClusters2020

AlpClusters2020 is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund

WHAT’S THAT

Approaching the end of a project it comes also the time to take stock of what we have done and, in the case of AlpClusters2020, which lasted a little over twelve months, this has come very soon.

Looking back at the beginning, we can appreciate even more the choice we made for the web communication: a blog, open to partners and stakeholders contributions, which allowed us to keep a very precise diary about what was accomplished and what, meanwhile, was happening around us in the world of clusters.

It became therefore easy to think about giving a second life to this inventory, collecting all the posts in chronological order thus creating a sort of journal of the project.

Hence, in the following pages you will find this story: how AlpClusters2020 took shape in the months between October 2013 and December 2014, mixed with news, events, reflections clusters related, which we come across during this travel.

Enjoy the reading!

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ALPCLUSTERS2020 The Alpine Space economy is largely based on manufacturing SMEs and clusters have been recognised as a powerful tool to enhance competitiveness.

The establishment of transnational clusters networks is a step forward although poor awareness of the potentialities from the addressees and the lack of self-sustainability in the medium and long term are still real barriers.

AlpClusters2020 goal was to contribute to the design of an integrated policy approach for the support of transnational clusters networks at Alpine space level, in order to facilitate the emergence of new industries and to enhance the resilience of the industrial ecosystem.

To achieve this result, AlpClusters2020 included a mix of analytical and participative moments.

More than 60 EU funded projects were analysed to understand which actions are more promising to support clusters competitiveness and which gaps are still to be fulfilled.

This analysis was deeply discussed with around 230 stakeholders who took an active part into the project through our events expressing their needs and priorities.

The outcome of such a process was the Alpine Space Action Plan: a technical document comprising 20 policy recommendations with suggestions, examples and references to the current Alpine Space Programme.

The Plan has also a brief and popular version, available on the project weblog, where it is also possible finding 22 videointerviews, showing the rich debate generated by the AlpClusters2020 community. alpclusters2020.eu

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THE POSTS Toward a colourful Horizon: a Macroregional Strategy for the Alps is possible?

On September 27th 2013 a seminar held at the Dolomiti Expo in Longarone, has focused the important issue “A macroregional strategy for the Alpine area and its potential added value for implementing Europe 2020�.

The Alpine area has huge underexploited potentialities: one of these is without doubts tourism. Anyway, as stressed by Mr Reiterer, Secretary General of the Alpine Convention, the increase in tourism is a challenging field that could not neglect taking into account the topic of environmental sustainability and

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transport efficiency.

There is a strong interdependency among the Alps territories that calls for synergic cooperation and a strategic view.

There is the clear need besides, committed Mr Ciambetti, Regional Minister for budget, finance, cross-border cooperation, to work together on an Alpine macroregional strategy which should start from local and regional perspective bringing concrete answers to concrete problems.

Mr Christian Salletmaier, Alpine Space Programme Managing Authority, presented the outcomes of the expert analysis (conducted in the frame of the Alpine Space strategy development project), underling that to build a coherent macrostrategy is necessary to: Focus on a limited number of issues with

concrete and timebound targets Bring together alpine actors around selected key objectives The next important appointment for the Alpine Regions is the seminar that will take place in Grenoble on 13th January.

AlpClusters2020 just launced The Alpine Space project AlpClusters2020 shall be at the intersection between the needs expressed by local businesses and the future macroregional strategy.

Through a highly participatory approach, it will begin its journey involving clusters, aggregations, associations and leading companies to focus on the needs of the area and the findings will be compared with the available tools developed and tested at European level.

The ultimate goal is to provide concrete proposals and recommendations

useful to those who are defining the strategies and themes of future territorial development programs for 2014-2020.

AlpClusters2020 is an Alpine Space Project coordinated by Veneto Innovazione, the regional agency for the promotion of innovation. The other partners are the Piedmont Region, the Piedmont plastic cluster Proplast , the German Institute SteinbeisEuropa-Zentrum , the Austrian Agency Clusterland, the French

pole Plastipolis and the Swiss Canton of Fribourg’s Science and Technology Hub. The project, launched in Venice on 7-8 October, will conclude at the end of 2014.

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Clusters as engines of industrial diversification and crosssectoral fertilisation This has been the topic addressed by Marco Malacarne, Head of Unit for “SMEs: Clusters and Emerging Industries” at the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, during the European Creative Industries Alliance Conference.

The event, held on 7th November 2013, brought together stakeholders keen to discuss this promising topic, coming from different European Countries in the venue of NABA, the international Fine Arts Academy of Milano.

Participants had the opportunity to debate about concrete actions and tools to support the sector development and, in particular, to foster the clusters evolution and its internationalsation.

During his speech, Mr Malacarne explained

the concept of “nearmarket cluster-led demonstrators” as powerful tool, bringing together all relevant players, with the final aim of creating opportunities for SMEs.

Let’s get the party started AlpClusters2020 is innovative also in the way to involve local stakeholders to understand from their voice, which are the real needs, what has been already tested in the territory, what has worked and could be valorised and why other initiatives have failed.

the new Alpine Space Programme.

These events will be implemented through small informal meetings.

The World Café methodology ( http:// www.theworldcafe. com/method.html) has been identified has a proper frame to boost the involvement and the active participation of the actors to be involved.

The starting point was the recognition that internationalisation of Clusters, and therefore of their members, must be based first of all on the experiences and skills of Clusters managers: this is the reason why a set of AlpCafés has been organised around the Alps to grasp the inputs of professionals taking an active part in this environment.

The aim is to collect ideas, analyse and aggregate them in order to extract hints for 5

Confererence: Fostering internationalisation of SMEs through Meta-Clusters On the 16th of January 2014 the Alps4EU final conference will take place at the “Eurorégion Alpes Méditerranéedelegation office” in Brussels.

The focus of the conference lies on the question how cluster initiatives can support the internationalisation of SMEs through metaclusters (small networks of cluster initiatives focussing on a specific topic or sector).

Of course the internationalisation topic is discussed since the beginning of the whole cluster concept, but the instruments and tools for internationalisation are still very limited.

One way for supporting trans-regional cooperation of SMEs is the establishment meta-clusters. How meta-clusters can be implemented and which services and activities are useful for companies in their

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internationalisation process will be discussed during the conference.

The conference is divided into two parts: 1. Final Conference of the Alps4EU projec Four thematic fields dealing with the question how policy can support the development and sustainability of meta-clusters. One representative from the policy side and one representative from the cluster management side will present their experiences and recommendation.

2. Intercluster workshop with cluster managers from all over Europe In an interactive workshop cluster managers will discuss about their experiences in establishing metaclusters, a useful organisational structure for a network of cluster initiatives and objectives and activities which can be realised through meta-clusters.

For more information http://www.alps4eu.eu/

country and at EU Internationaliza- the level, for programming tion strategies of the next Interreg IVB cluster networks funding period. in Baden-WürtConference temberg New cluster With 12 cluster policies for managers, the Central Europe Steinbeis-EuropaZentrum discussed on and beyond 19.11.2013 in Stuttgart on the subject of internationalization in a first AlpCafe.

The international conference aims at discussing new cluster

The AlpCafe was organized acoording to the “WorldCafe”Methodology asking questions on whether internationalization strategies exist in the clusters, on barriers for international cooperation and on reasonable assistance from policy level to overcome these barriers.

The aim was to give suggestions and recommendations to policy makers, both in

concepts for cluster policy in Europe.

In the light of the upcoming challenges at European level indicating demographic change, climate change etc. clusters will have to adapt their way of traditional clustering in order to be able to come up with solutions required by the new markets.

Clusters are an important innovation factor for regions. If clusters are willing to

exploit new emerging markets also the competitiveness of regions will be raised.

In the morning session of the conference three Key Note Speakers will set the scene for the current cluster policies in Europe. Participants will be informed about the cluster policies in Europe with three different focuses: the future European challenges, Smart Specialisation and Key Enabling Technologies.

In the afternoon session the participants will be able to learn from best practices from the Central Europe region and beyond. In the framework of the strategic Central Europe project called CluStrat new cluster concepts have been developed and tested in pilot actions. Best practices and new cluster concepts will be presented and discussed, also from outside of the CE area.

Based on these findings

impacts on the cluster policy in Europe will be discussed.

A special focus will be on how these results can be directly transferred into other regions, especially the Danube region.

In the evening you will be invited to an official reception in the Representation of the State of BadenWürttemberg to the European Union.

Programme

AlpClusters2020: a contribution to the development of an EU strategy for the Alpine Region The European Council of 19-20 December 2013 invited the Commission, in co-operation with the Member States, to elaborate an EU Strategy for the Alpine Region by June 2015.

The strategy will involve 7 countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland.

The new strategy will focus on three thematic priorities: competitiveness and innovation; environmentally friendly

mobility; sustainable management of energy, natural and cultural resources.

On-line public general consultation on the strategy will be held in July 2014 and an Action Plan developed by January 2015.

Valorising lessons learnt and territorial needs in the Alpine area with a view to develop proposals for the future, ALPCLUSTERS2020 can represent a valid contribution to the development of an EU strategy for the Alpine Region, in particular within the priority “competitiveness and innovation”.

Aiming to promote better internationalisation conditions for clusters and networks of companies, the expectations of stakeholders in the areas involved, have been collected through the Alpcafés, the online survey launched through the European Cluster Cooperation Platform, as well as through the socialnetworks channels activated. On May 14th,

in Linz, some already implemented actions will be presented and discussed. This process of consultations of the stakeholders and analysis of good practices will lead to the development of an Action Plan, collecting at least 20 proposals for policy actions.

This document might end-up to become a relevant input to the development of a comprehensive new strategy for the Alpine Region.

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Cluster internationalization is not an option In a such a global world cluster, internationalization is not an option:markets are global, science is global and finally.. problems are global.

If one of the goal of an organised cluster is supporting the growth of local companies, the international dimension has to be defined as one of the priorities. Starting from such assumption 4 different clusters (bioPmed in Italy,

Lyonbiopole in France, Biocat in Spain and BioM in Germany), decided to join their forces to create an innovative platform both for cluster managing companies internationalisation and for companies internationalisation. bioXclusters, this is the name of the initiative, has been funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry under the call “Promotion and 8

development of worldclass clusters in Europe”, and financed under the “Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)”. The initiative has been targeted towards far markets (Us, China and Brasil) and has tested different approaches and tools to support companies growth. To share such knowledge BioXclusters partners defined a set of reccomandations for cluster internationalisation.

More info are here: www.bioxclusters.eu

A survey on clusters’ internationalisation: take part! your contribution is precious!

The Alpcafés have been essential to detect the point of view of the stakeholders in the regions involved in AlpClusters2020; however, it is not enough: a survey has been launched to collect as much information as possible on the issue of transnational cooperation of clusters, even beyond the Alpine Region’s borders.

The survey is addressed to cluster organisations, cluster members and stakeholders and aims at collecting their priorities in relation to: -the reasons why international cooperation is important from the perspective of clusters and networks; -the main barriers for sustainable international

cooperation; -the tools and activities needed to foster such cooperation.

AlpClusters20X20: a PechaKucha workshop in Linz. Be part of the discussion!

A PechaKuchaTM workshop on international clusters cooperation is taking place in Linz (AT) on May 14. The aim of the workshop is to compare and discuss some examples of international cluster cooperation projects in Europe and to develop practical tools to be prepared for future challenges.

In particular, we will try to find answers to the key questions: - What can the best tools, methods and support be to have sustainable success in the future?

- How have these tools demonstrated to positively impact the development of international collaboration among clusters and networks?

- Why it is the Alpine area the most promising

one to implement such initiatives?

Why a PechaKuchaTM workshop?

PechaKucha 20x20 is a presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images.

This special format forces the speakers to stick to the point and gives no space for general statements.

Moreover, picturesbased presentations, being all very different, turn each workshop into something unique.

Selection of six regions to receive advisory support to develop cluster policies A call has been launched by the European Commission to select to select six model demonstrator regions, which will receive specific advisory support by the European Cluster Observatory. The aim will be to develop and implement a modern cluster policy which can effectively contribute

to the creation of new jobs and business opportunities in the region.

The selected model demonstrator regions will receive by the European Cluster Observatory the following services: - A summary assessment reportpresenting an analysis of the relative importance and potential of clusters and of the related industries in the region, as well as an assessment of existing or planned policy schemes, following desk research and a study visit to the region including interviews with key stakeholders.

- A European Cluster Excellence Scorecard reportrepresenting the results of a regional survey and benchmarking to identify the importance and availability of favourable conditions in the regional business environment, firm strength and business support services.

- Organisation of a two-day peer review meetingin the region to foster policy learning and injecting external expert input into the region’s cluster policy development, resulting in a proceedings report.

- Provision of a final policy briefingwith concrete recommendations, a detailed action plan and roadmap to address the challenge of the model region.

- Promotion and showcasingof the region’s demonstrator approach via the European Cluster Observatory’s web pages at the European Commission’s Enterprise & Industry web portal, newsletter, promotional videos and at the European Cluster Conferences.

The selected regions will receive the customised advisory support services free of charge from the European Cluster Observatory. The recommendations will include advice on how to make better use of the European Structural and Investment Funds to harness the potential of clusters; however, no direct financial support will be provided for the implementation of the recommendations and actions.

The interested regions have to submit a 5 pages concept note describing a specific challenge or opportunity the region would like to address and demonstrating

the commitment and ambition to implement the policy recommendations of the European Cluster Observatory.

Priority will be given to those regions with highest ambition and best ideas to capitalise on crosssectoral collaboration and innovation for their future strategies.

Applicants must be ready to remove existing barriers and to take-up innovative solutions in their regions, also reallocating funds to support their implementation. Strong support from relevant

stakeholders is a condition for achieving real impact.

The deadline for the submission of the concept note is 12/05/2014.

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Smart Plastics Congress-17th & 18th of June 2014 in LyonFrance

JAM BITE: a new formula for SME promotion and networking events

Plastipolis, in partnership with Clusterland, will organize, for the first time in Lyon, the 3rd edition of the Smart Plastics Congress.

This 2-days event is a great opportunity to get a comprehensive overview of future applications in smart plastics with the use of 3D MID and organic electronics technologies. Among the speakers : designers, researchers, industrials and end-users. This event addresses a large audience willing to learn more about those new technologies and their market potential and to network with participants from Finland, Germany, Austria, UK, France...

For more information : http://www.plastipolis. fr/

JAM BITE (Join Advanced Meetings on Business, Innovation, Technology, Energy) is an innovative concept for events and networking activities developed within the project AlpEnMAT. During these events, SMEs operating in the field of low–carbon economy, energy efficiency and sustainable mobility have the possibility to promote their skills, products and services.

The aim of the AlpEnMAT Project is to help innovative SMEs in the Alpine Space to take advantage of the new possibilities offered by renewable energies, bringing them together with buyers of technologies,

municipalities and regions, institutional and private decision makers, as well as public and private financing institutions.

During the JAM BITE events companies have the chance to share their knowledge, meet potential customers and investors, extend their network and develop strategic partnerships and collaborations.

Cooperation continues in a virtual webspace after the physical meetings.

Participation to the JAM BITE events is free of charge. Here it is possible to find out latest information on the next sessions and to register.

First impact assessment results During our project meeting in Linz we took time to have a look at our first analysis of the feedback we got from the 650+ projects partners of the Alpine Space programme. The main focus has been put on the different types of content the Alpine Space projects produce and get an assessment on the ones which are the most efficient, interesting in terms of impact. This information will be used to improve the next call for projects. We got many recommandations and feedback like: « One shouldn’t forget to put in his budget a consequent amount of money for broadcasting the projet’s results in order to have a bigger impact. » or « As networking is so important, the project leader should organise a first meeting as soon as possible. ». Out of the data, it was also clear who are the main target partners for each partner. We could analyse the differences - in terms of their interactions, focus and preferences - among the

three projects types/ priorities: “Competitivity and Attractiveness”, “Accessibility and Connectivity”, “Environment and Risk”.

Thanks to that meeting we improved the survey with questions around entry-barriers, financing the projects on the long-run and collaborative and management tools.

AlpClusters20X20: the PechaKucha workshop in Linz!

Fifty cluster specialists from all over Europe met in Linz (Austria) on May 14, 2014 for a workshop on cluster internationalization held within the EU project AlpClusters2020 (Alpine Space Programme). The cluster experts came from Germany , Italy, France , Portugal, Denmark , Sweden , Serbia, Hungary, Switzerland and Austria to discuss the topic: how can companies make the most of cluster internationalization activities?

The eight speeches from various best-practice projects delivered using the innovative and challenging PechaKucha © - format (20 images to explain in 20 seconds each) represented a valuable input on this topic. In the ensuing discussion, solutions have been suggested to improve the existing measures and develop recommendations for decision makers.

The unanimous

opinion resulted from the debate is that cooperation between politics, transnational clusters and networks with stakeholders is the key. The international activities of companies still need to be stepped up significantly and the sustainability of the implemented measures must be ensured. The workshop was only a first step but the main barriers have been identified. DI ( FH) Werner Pamminger , CEO of Clusterland Upper Austria, summarized one of the biggest challenges: “Internationalization projects are often dependent on public funding. At the end of the projects no more resources are available to ensure the sustainability of such actions”.

In the next months, within the project Alpclusters2020,

concrete recommendations for decision-makers, aimed at improving the sustainability of internationalization activities, will be developed.

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The Chicken or the Egg? Why Cluster Organizations and Informal Innovation Networks are both important.

We all assume that networking helps companies on their way to innovate more effectively. Academic research also supports this assumption.

Therefore, regional development and innovation support agencies enable the creation of networks for SMEs to support their innovation activities.

These formal networks and events are often the starting point for future cooperation between SMEs, Universities and research institutions, public organizations, investors, NGOs and, last but not least, they become important platforms for getting in touch with potential customers.

But once the SMEs are connected to the first node of the network, the further development and nature of the networks they will actually profit from in their 12

innovation process may be very different. The networks SMEs really use are sometimes more “ad-hoc” in nature than formal networks requiring registration, membership fees and other formalities.

The question that companies should ask themselves before joining a network is “who is really important for my innovation activities?” and not merely “with whom can I exchange business cards?”.

To better understand

as an observer, offers me the possibility to reflect and discuss the results of KARIM with experts from the cluster organizations participating in this Alpine Space project.

But have we found an answer to the chicken-egg question?

Actually, many of the interviewees – most of them members of the management team of the interviewed company – told us that there is a permanent alternation between the two network types.

if formal networks are really more effective than the informal ones, the KARIM project, implemented within the Interreg IVB North-West Europe programme, developed a typology of informal/ ad-hoc innovation networks based on 37 in-depth case studies on European SMEs from all KARIM partner regions.

Furthermore, the Alpclusters2020 project, in which I am involved

Informal network partners suggest joining a formal network to get better business contacts and have access to different business support services generally offered by cluster organizations.

Once part of a formal network, the members start to develop new informal connections and the circuit restarts again. However, the type which comes first – the chicken or the

egg, formal o informal – differs from case to case. For this reason I believe it is worth to support both formal and informal innovation network types.

Literature: Thomas Bentivegna (2013): Innovation Network Functionality: The Identification and Categorization of Multiple Innovation Networks (BestMasters).

Springer Gabler Thomas Bentivegna, Frank Bau, Michael Forster (2014): Ad-Hoc Innovation Networks of European SMEs. A typology of networks based on a multiple case study. Working Paper.

Second CESBA Sprint Workshop in TURIN (1st of July) After the success of the 1st CESBA SPRINT Workshop in Hochhäderich (Austria), the 2nd CESBA SPRINT Workshop will be held in Turin (Italy) on the 1st of July 2014.

What is CESBA? CESBA (Common European Sustainable Building Assessment) is an initiative promoting the harmonization of building and neighbourhood assessment in Europe.

In particular, CESBA focuses on the harmonization of the indicators used to measure and assess the sustainability of the built environment.

Why the 2nd CESBA Sprint Workshop?

-To expand the CESBA initiative and invite experts, organisations and initiatives from all over Europe; - To coordinate various upcoming activities and develop cooperation projects; -To strengthen the network among various actors from different European regions

and to build up new partnerships.

The sprint method The SPRINT method gathers stakeholders from different backgrounds: developers and users of new services and technological solutions work side by side for one day.

The participants work together observing a very tight schedule to get useful and shared results in a very short time: repetitive, short but intensive time slots help maintaining the focus on the main issues.

The SPRINT methodology focuses on every single person within the group and on the most important tasks to be done. A side effect of the method is to strengthen the sense of community among the participants.

The participants will be divided into 4 working groups focused on different specific topics.

Each working group

is guided by a moderator who is an expert in that particular field and leads the group towards the objectives. A red line connects the work of one single to the works of all groups, from the beginning to the end of the workshop.

The participants can also leave their own working group for a while and join the CESBA Wiki workshops running parallel to the thematic groups.

The working groups in the July session will be: -Strengthening local economy: SME opportunities; -Framework for public administrations; -EU projects: results, challenges and opportunities; -Roadmap for assessment harmonization; -Introduction to the CESBA-Wiki.

The experts who will join the workshops as moderators are: Markus BerchtoldDomig, Nena Network Enterprise Alps (AT) (overall moderator) Miro Kristan, Pososki razvojni center (SI) Etienne Vienot, Rhônalpénergie

Environnement (FR) Roberta Pernetti EURAC, European Academy of Bolzano (IT) Giulia Barbano, iiSBE Italia (IT) Robert Moosbrugger, Regionalentwicklung Vorarlberg eGen (AT) Svenja Stahnke, University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim (GER) Andrea Moro, Protocollo ITACA, Regione Piemonte (IT) Nadine Kießling, Regionalentwicklung Vorarlberg eGen (AT) Peter Steurer, Regionalentwicklung Vorarlberg eGen (AT)

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Creative Camp©: building crossborder networks in the creative sector During the Alpclusters20X20 workshop in Linz, the attention of the audience focused on the initiative Creative Camp©, implemented within the EU project CCAlps, also financed by the Alpine Space Programme.

Creative Camp© is a pilot action, initially tested at local level by the project partners and then implemented at European scale.

It consists in a set of initiatives aiming at developing a network of cultural and creative micro, small and middle size companies.

But how does a Creative Camp© concretely work? After being selected through a call for proposals, the young wannabe-creativeentrepreneurs with the most innovative projects gather in one place to take part to an intensive workshop, which will help them to (further) develop their business model.

In addition to that, they are offered one14

to-one coaching and mentoring sessions, leading them towards the concrete implementation of their business ideas.

The experience of a Creative Camp© ends with the presentation of the projects in front of stakeholders and potential investors.

The last Creative Camp© took place between the 17thand 20th of May in Friedrichshafen, a fascinating location on the Lake Constance.

It gathered 50 participants from 6 different countries and focused on mobile applications and platforms in the areas of lifestyle, e-commerce, games, culture and smart production & manufacturing.

In fact, the aim of a Creative Camp© is not only to coach and mentor the young entrepreneurs, but also to offer them an opportunity to meet, share ideas, experiences and expectations, thereby creating strong interactions between the participants. The start-uppers arrive alone, but leave in a network.

This is why the cluster experts who participated in our workshop were so

interested in the initiative: is this a new way to build up crossborder clusters? Should business connect from the very beginning, i.e. the planning phase, to establish trust relations? Indeed, the inspiring pictures taken during the initiative demonstrate how the young participants learned to work together and to share their knowledge.

Monica Carrera, co-founder of the artistic residence Case Sparse explains: “The opportunity to share projects, idea and time with other start-ups helped us to build up a network with other companies. We started to co-operate with the production agency That’s Contemporary, which enabled us to expand our communication activities. For instance, we created the contents for the app That’s Valley, launched by That’s Contemporary, which maps the innovative realities in the valley

where we are located (Valle Camonica, Brescia, Italy). When the enthusiasm for something is shared, building a network is immediate and productive. In our case the basis for this cooperation was the passion for art and new technologies.

For us networking is particularly important because we operate in peripheral areas, far from the main economic hubs. In effect, among our partners we also have territorial actors such as the Cultural Cluster of Valle Camonica and the agencies for territorial communication and promotion Schiribis and Voilà.”

If you are interested in discovering more about the projects “incubated” in the Creative Camps, note on your agenda the Cross Creativity event (Milan, 19-20 June, 2014), where the best projects will be showcased. http://www.itsastart.it/ ccalps-creative-camp/

The new programme Alpine Space 2014 + presented in Turin On June 12, 2014, the Environment Park in Turin hosted a workshop dedicated to the new Eu Programme Alpine Space 20142020. The meeting was organized by the Alpine Space Contact Point in Italy and aimed not only to present the new programme, but also to start developing new project ideas.

After having explained the reasons of the meeting, the morning session focused on the results of the previous programming period and on the cross-border, transnational and macro-regional strategy in the Alpine region and in Europe. Finally the new Programme Alpine Space, the main differences with the previous one and the new opportunities to implement projects were illustrated.

In the afternoon session 6 thematic groups were organized and participants had to submit a project idea. After choosing

two of these project, the challenge was to evaluate the internal and external coherence with the Program.

The thematic groups were: 1. Innovation and technological development 2. Social Innovation 3. Low carbon economy and energy efficiency 4. Sustainable Transport and Mobility 5. Cultural and Natural Heritage 6. Biodiversity and ecosystems protection It was indeed a very interesting day. The discussion in the thematic group “Innovation and technological development” highlighted the necessity to involve clusters to develop new and different policies, taking into account also the needs of businesses and users.

These and other issues will certainly be discussed in the next AlpCafé organised by the Piedmont Region.

The meeting will be repeated on June 18, 2014 in Venice.

The new Alpine Space Programme presented in Venice

period and the actions which will be possible to implement were explained in detail. The speakers highlighted also the importance of establishing well structured partnerships, involving actors of On June 18, 2014 the different nature, also in Italian Alpine Space Contact Point presented the private sector. in Venice the new Alpine In the afternoon, the participants were Space Cooperation divided in thematic Programme. groups and were asked Following the same to draft a project idea, agenda of the event describing objectives, organised last week in partnership, activities, Turin, the conference target groups and started with a specifying how presentation of the the project would new European strategy capitalise the previously for the Alpine Macroacquired knowledge.

Region and with an Afterwards, two overview of the main projects for thematic results of the Alpine group were selected Space programme in and the participants the recently closed had to evaluate their programming period.

Afterwards, a preview of compliance with the programme. the new “Cooperation The event turned out to Programme” be a useful opportunity (ex-Operational for project managers to Programme) solve the first doubts was given to the on the new Alpine participants, mainly Space Cooperation project managers and stakeholders from both Programme and to start formulating project private and public ideas in accordance organisations. The with the programme priorities chosen for principles. the new programming

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A successful study tour for the ClusteriX project in Lyon The Interreg IVC project ClusteriX aims to enable regional authorities to identify, analyze and explore the potential of strategic future cluster development through the exchange of experiences and best practices between 9 partners from 8 different countries.

Plastipolis has worked with ERAI in this project in order to identify best practices in the RhôneAlps region and to achieve a competence mapping for cross sectorial innovation between European regions and clusters.

In the frame of this project, a study tour has been organized in Lyon from June 16th to June 18th in order to present best practices for the internationalization of clusters and SMEs. Meetings and on-site visits have taken place in Lyon and Grenoble

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and have led to fruitful discussions for the possible replication of good practices from one region to another and to recommendations for policy making.

instance, the Smart Plastics, combining plastics engineering electronics and 3rd International with computer science, Polymers clearly illustrate how more and more Congress: an functions are integrated exciting mix of directly into plastic parts. economy and Currently also the science topics of „lightweight“ and „bionics“, in which The 3rd International plastic plays a central Polymers Congress role, are gaining an will take place on increasing importance. the 29th and 30th Plastic materials remain Ocotber 2014 in Schloss central to guarantee Puchberg, Wels (Austria). the sustainability of This event will be a products as they enable good opportunity valuable resources to exchange knowand energy savings. how and to establish That’s why it is not contacts with branch surprising that the decision-makers. plastic companies have The plastics industry is a continuously created high-tech sector with a jobs in the recent years promising future. Since despite the difficult the establishment of economic situation. the plastics cluster in We are looking forward Austria 15 years ago, this to meet the high-profile branch has considerably representatives of the developed and international plastics changed. In particular, industry in Wels. Trends, innovation through innovation and visions: cooperation and cross- the 3rd International sectoral innovation, key Polymers Congress issues for companies offers an exciting mix of in the plastic sector, economy and science! became central also For more information for the cluster. For at to register to the

congress visit the website: www.polymerkongress. at

Piedmont Region’s financial support for innovation clusters and SMEs In Piedmont the importance of clusters is recognised by the Regional Government.

Through the service call 2013, the Region has financially supported the acquisition of qualified services for research and innovation for small and mediumsized businesses bundled with Innovation Clusters. The benefit was provided for to the acquisition of the following types of services: • Management services for intellectual property; • Technology intelligence services; • Creation and support services for the market introduction of new products / services; • Support services for the use of design; • Support services for innovative enterprises; • Personnel mobility

services.

More recently (August 2014) a new call was launched within the network M-ERA. NET to support SMEs’ transnational projects of industrial research, experimental development, applied research in science and engineering of materials.

This call will fund projects related to: 1) New Surfaces and Coatings 2) Materials for Health This initiative aims to stimulate the aggregation of Piedmontese and European companies, combining both innovation and internationalisation of the Piedmontese production system.

AlpCafé: second round in Venice On the 16th of July, 14 cluster managers and stakeholders participated to the second round of Alpcafé organised

by Veneto Innovazione in Venice.

The participants were asked to prioritize a given

list of actions, resulting from an analysis on 57 EU projects financed during the programming period 2007-2013. The aim was to identify those with the greatest impact and sustainability in supporting clusters and companies internationalisation.

The stakeholders agreed in giving the priority to “pilot actions and pilot projects”, thereby expressing the need to translate ideas into concrete actions that can, acting as demonstrators, show “how the future will be”.

On the contrary, “webtools” (networking platforms, databases of peers, open innovation platforms, etc.) received the lowest ranking by the participants, who consider these more as basic elements, complementary to other actions.

During the discussion, it was highlighted also the importance of policies and institutions: the future

of clusters depends on the cooperation with institutions, a partnership that must be strengthened in order to define shared strategies at policy level.

E-learning goes global Is your company starting business abroad? What about extra-european business etiquette? Have you ever wondered how is business culture and negotiation process in South Korea for example?

To answer all this questions and make profit in the proper way, the eLSi project can help! Through the creation of language & culture training resources, the eLSi project wants to contribute to a successful increase in the global competitiveness of European small and medium-sized enterprises in the life science sector, with a focus on non-European target countries.

The countries covered are Brazil, China, India, USA,

South Korea, Australia, Japan and the Middle

East.

You just need to request a log in http://www. rln-uk.com/efront/ www/index.php and you will have at your disposal a complete e-learning platform for internationalisation!

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2nd ECRN Project Council Meeting Chemical clusters and plastics converting clusters met in Munich on July 9th to facilitate co-operation within cluster networks. The ECRN project council meeting focused on collaboration within projects and the participants discussed the objectives and targets of future networks. More than 20 clusters within the European chemical clusters and the plastics clusters community met and discussed project ideas in this workshop.

The results of the AlpCafés of AlpClusters2020 will be a perfect foundation for further transregional cluster activities and project drafts in the future.

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Interview to Antonella Venza, cluster manager

the partners. It is essential, for instance, that all the involved companies respect the agreed schedules and Antonella Venza, cluster standards, because the attention for the manager at Luce in Veneto (Veneto Lighting clients is a priority in this initiative and a negative Cluster) is interviewed behaviour of one on her experience partner could jeopardise related to cluster the results of the others. internationalisation.

What is your experience Now we are working on a common showroom of internationalisation and store representing within a cluster? all the companies. We The cluster Luce in want the buyers to Veneto built up a talk with us directly common branding strategy as it is essential and not only through commercial mediators. for us to present We have realised that ourselves united to the market has changed international clients and our strong point in and to be recognised this market is being able by them as an entity.

We strongly believe that to provide high quality this common marketing tailored manufacturing strategy strengthens the products. We are image of our companies. adapting to the new conditions and being For instance, we made united is key in this a presentation video strategy. The aim of our and we participated to cluster is joining the a sectoral international forces to increase the fair together so that orders for anyone and clients could meet not competing against us all in the same each other. stand. In addition, During the Alpcafé, we have launched from a list of different a common trade actions, you gave the initiative in Romania based on an informal agreement between the companies of our cluster. This initiative highlighted the importance of establishing trust relationships between

priority to “Joint Cluster Strategies”. Why do you think that “Joint Cluster Strategies” are important to promote cluster international cooperation?

“Joint Cluster Strategy” means bringing together clusters with common objectives from different countries and develop a strategy together to reach these objectives. In 2012, we launched ELCA, an European partnership gathering 10 clusters in the lighting sector.

What we are doing, the fact of establishing contacts with clusters similar to ours, is very positive. We are creating an alliance, which enables us to develop projects together. For instance, in November 2013 we launched the project SSL-erate (7th Framework Programme) promoting the study and correct use of the LED technology.

I gave the priority to “Joint Cluster Strategy” because of our experience: opening to other clusters with similar objectives brought us new

opportunities in terms of know-how and research. It is wellknown that research and innovation are essential to be competitive in the global market, but in order to invest in this, SME have to overcome the obstacles linked to their dimension and join bigger aggregations.

The project SSL-erate is based on an “open innovation” approach, which implies the consultation of different actors and stakeholders like public administrations, environmental agencies, Universities and companies. This approach is important because it enables us to focus on research projects based on the real needs of the market.

Alpcafè Piemonte: it’s time for the second round!

The second round of the Alpcafè in Piemonte took place on the 17th July, in the premises of Regione Piemonte, in Torino.

Proplast and Regione Piemonte involved in the second round of the

AlpCafè event 13 among the most important stakeholders at regional level, including cluster managers, people from the Chamber of Commerce and policy makers of Finpiemonte.

After a short presentation about AlpClusters2020, given

by Juliana Cerutti from Regione Piemonte, Laura Fusani from Proplast summed up the main results of the previous first round of the Alpcafè.

Then the “hard part” of the job started.

The participants were given a list of example tools resulting from an analysis on 57 EU projects financed during the programming period 2007-2013.

The stakeholders were asked to prioritize these actions, scoring them in terms of impact on companies internationalization and cluster effectiveness.

Visions and new suggestions were asked, and some advices came out during the discussion.

The final ranking of tools was shared by the majority of participants.

All the participating stakeholders showed a strong commitment to share visions and strategies, supported by a good international experience and a lot of examples of activities realized in these years.

The need of shared training programmes and of different and innovative pilot actions was raised; innovate to start new cooperation’s schemes is still possible, and, in a wordplay, international cooperation will remain one of the best path to innovate!

Innovation Express call: supporting SMEs internationalisation through cluster initiatives

the framework of the BSR Stars programme.

The call is funded by national/regional funding agencies to initiate, develop or enhance transnational cooperation activities leveraging cluster organisations (or similar) to develop proposals for their SME members.

Find out the application rules and download the application form here BSR Stars’ website.

Potential applicants will meet and match project ideas in a Cluster-2Cluster event on 18 and 19 September 2014 in Berlin – don’t miss this opportunity! Discover more on this event here.

Photo: Nikolaj Bock – norden.org

There is time until October 31st to apply for the Innovation Express call supporting SMEs internationalisation through cluster initiatives.

BSR Innovation Express is a joint call for proposals implemented within 19

Workshops on the strategic integration of KETs and the role of SMEs and Clusters How are Key Enabling Technologies integrated and adopted by the European industry?

How can SMEs and clusters play a role in enabling this strategic integration? A series of workshops are organised in different European cities to discuss these issues with stakeholders.

The workshops are part of the project EU Knights which aims to promote best practices, highlighting barriers and identifying appropriate business models/strategies to stimulate innovation with the goal of maintaining a globally competitive and sustainable manufacturing industry in Europe.

The European Commission considers Key Enabling Technologies as boosting factors of innovation. In particular, the 6 KETs identified by the Commission are: -Advanced Materials -Advanced 20

Manufacturing -Nanotechnology - Photonics - Micro and nano electronics - Biotechnology The workshops will be organised at local level to favour the dialogue between stakeholders and have feedbacks (especially from SMEs) on how to improve the approach to KETs. Clusters will play a keyrole in the workshops as they are asked to involve their network in the discussion, prioritize the initiatives and collect the needs and the expectations of SMEs with regard to the future innovation through financed research.

One of the workshops will be organised in cooperation with Proplast in Piedmont (IT) on September, 25th as an open session on how to improve plastic business. Other workshops will be organised in Bilbao (ES), Fuerth (DE) and Limoges (FR). www.proplast.it

Regione Piemonte funded the fourth annual programme on innovation clusters Regione Piemonte has funded the fourth annual programme on innovation clusters, which assigns a contribution of more than EUR 10 million to support 35 projects in the various branches of specialization.

Among the initiatives a substantial part concerns the issue of energy sources. A lot of clusters have submitted proposals to identify innovative solutions in the field: it ranges from the creation of energy through nonpotable water (sewage, for example) to the production of heat under conditions of low solar radiation; from energy production through agricultural residues to the creation of a system to exploit the waste timber.

There are also interesting proposals on the textiles’ theme, such as the creation of more durable materials for those who travel in

space; in the tourism sector; to explore in more depth the works of art in more detail unattainable, and in the field of health, with the planned creation of a future line of exoskeletons (artificial legs). Good news for mountain lovers, especially for the more adventurous: it will be created an innovative system for the rescue of the missing in mountainous areas.

Giuseppina De Santis Regional Councillor for

Productive Activities – underlines that “The innovation clusters have worked well in the recent years and implemented very interesting initiatives.

Now the task for us is to learn from these experiences in order to exploit their impact. When we talk about innovative research projects it is

fundamental to project them in an international dimension. To do this we have to concentrate the available resources on ideas that can have a multiplier effect. With a few thousand Euros on a research project we can’t do so much.

Much more effective, however, is to make mass on proposals in which we believe. In this strategy clusters have a key role as catalysts and organizers of the best ideas”.

All innovation clusters will receive the grant for at least one project.

The most numerous initiatives concern mechatronics, which will have six proposals funded for over 2 and a half million contribution, followed by textile and ICT with five projects. It was also set up a waiting list containing six other initiatives.

Po.in.tex and the Innovation Day: spreading innovation in the textile industry Po.in.tex is an association of companies, consortiums and research organizations founded in 2009 with the aim to promote industrial competitiveness through a cooperative innovation and to strengthen the territorial textile production of fabrics while operating with a particular outlook in establishing international networks.

The key players of the Cluster, which has Città Studi as its Managing Coordinator, are the companies that invest on a daily basis in textile innovation, in both traditional and non-traditional sectors.

Through a systematic process of dialogue between demand and supply, Po.in. tex supports a cooperative innovation also by creating a direct dialogue between textile companies and the finishing

product sector. This is demonstrated by constantly organizing a series of Innovation Day seminars which are unique in its kind and where Po.in.tex proposes concrete ideas to companies in terms of innovation and research.

To facilitate funding access to its members (more than 100), Po.in. tex works to simplify the bureaucratic process, directing priorities regarding the calls for proposals to receive funding and informing members on the eligibility for participation. Only in the last 12 months, the total of funding received was more than 1.8 million euro.

Moreover, the Cluster constantly monitors the supply of technologies on the market in order to facilitate the collaboration between companies and research centers, as well as, activating group work in different fields.

Creating value together with the members in a cooperative teamwork is what motivates Po.in. tex to assist companies in projects already in progress and to help them disseminate the results obtained.

An interesting initiative

organised by Po.in. tex in cooperation with other clusters are the Innovation Days, a series of seminars to spread among companies concrete ideas on innovation and research.

The 16th Innovation Day is scheduled on September 8th, 2014 and will be focused on the topic “Green and Smart Factory: effectiveness and efficiency in production”.

The event is organized in cooperation with the other regional clusters: ICT, Polo Agroalimentare, Enermhy, MESAP, Proplast, Polibre and POLIGHT. This emphasizes the need and importance of joint actions between Clusters. The event will focus on the most innovative productive processes, combining “smart” and “green” features. The meeting will explore the most promising scenarios and will illustrate good practices, technologies, specific tools and business opportunities for the local companies.

Registrations are possible at http://i2m. torinowireless.it/

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The point of view of Marco Piunti (bioPmed) on cluster internationalization Marco Piunti of bioPmed (the Italian innovation cluster dedicated to healthcare related products and services), explains the internationalisation experience of this cluster.

What is the internationalisation experience of bioPmed?

Since its creation in 2009, internationalization has been a fundamental part of bioPmed cluster development strategy.

This activity has been developed through an action of international positioning and networking that enabled the creation of several operational channels and synergies with different territories in Europe and in the rest of the world. All internationalisation activities begin with an initial analysis of the markets potentially interesting for the

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cluster members and an analysis of their competitive key technologies. The strategy has been defined by creating solid and concrete relationships with other European clusters and through specific projects funded by different funding schemes. BioPmed has participated as partner to 14 European projects, all implemented with the final goal to offer free services to the cluster members, creating at the same time the conditions for further collaborations.

Furthermore, the activity of international positioning and networking was realized through a series of formal and informal agreements with various actors and clusters in Europe, U.S., Asia and North Africa and thanks to the active participation to numerous conferences, partnership events at European and international level, as well as to the most important life science trade fairs.

During the Alpcafé, from a list of different actions, you gave the priority to “Joint Funding” and “Marketing support”.

Why do you think these

actions are important?

We see these two actions as complementary: through market and sector studies, different areas to develop joint projects between different clusters could be identified.

Also the definition of the regional Smart Specialization Strategies can be helpful: the analysis of the different regional specializations makes it easier to identify complementarities, facilitates the developing of multisectoral projects between different clusters, creating the conditions for collaborations between companies from different countries and sectors.

Cluster Academy 2014 Organized by Clusterland Upper Austria, the 6th Cluster Academy, will be held in Linz, on 25-28 November 2014 and will focus on how to build up and successfully manage cluster organizations.

Upper Austria, perceived as a truly successful model of a “cluster region”, will share its expertise in cluster management operations.

The cluster management workshop will cover all the folowing areas: knowledge management, initiation and support of cooperation projects, qualification and event management, internationalization, international projects financing and evaluation & measuring and individual face to face meetings with experienced Cluster managers.

For more information and news check out http://www. clustercollaboration.eu/ home

EPoSS Annual Assembly and Forum in Turin: an opportunity for Piedmont Region.

Thanks to the participation of the Cluster MESAP (Mechatronics and Advanced Production Systems) in the European project “ EXPRESS” and to the commitment of the CEIP - Foreign Centre for Internationalisation, this year Turin will have the honour to host the General Assembly and the Annual Forum of EPoSS, the European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration.

The event taking place from September 24th to 26th will attract experts of the Smart Systems Integration sector from all over Europe, thereby putting the Piedmont area in the spotlight of an international and highly qualified audience.

This indeed represents an opportunity for the

Region to showcase its excellences.

The participation to the EPoSS General Asssembly, Annual Forum & Engagement Day 2014 is free of charge for EPoSS members and speakers. For all the other participants the fee is 400 EUR. Registration also allows exhibition of a poster or demonstrator.

Registration is mandatory for all participants.

B2B meetings: upcoming opportunities for companies!

Po.in.tex, a cluster with a strong experience in terms of research, innovation and development, strongly believes that the challenges of the future pass through the opening, exchange and comparison with other realities, also at international level.

In this regard, B2B (business-to-business) meetings are

particularly important as they represent opportunities of exchange in which it is possible to learn about the markets of different countries, in order to have a constantly updated picture of the sector in which a company operates and imagine future scenarios.

Po.in.tex has identified some interesting opportunities for B2B meetings scheduled in the next months, and namely: FashionMatch Amsterdam (Netherlands) 13 to 14 July 2014 Event of bilateral meetings (B2B) solutions for companies and designers working in the textile industry (fashion, fashion design, accessories).

More information about the event Plastics Meetings & Forum Plastipolis Espace Tête d’Or, Lyon (France) 30 September to 2 October 2014 Convention and

international forum for the plastics industry.

Brokerage Energy Environment Events Lille (France) October 9, 2014 Matchmaking event for energy and the environment Rail Industry Meetings Lille Grand Palais (France) 2 to 3 Dec 2015 B2B meetings for the railway industry

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CluStrat final conference in Venice The final conference of the EU project CluStrat will take place in Venice on the 18th September, 2014. The theme of the conference is “New cluster concepts for cluster policies in Europe”.

The 18 project partners from 8 Central European Countries have been working for 3 years on new cluster concepts in order to better exploit the opportunities offered by the emerging industries, focusing especially on how to create linkages between traditional sectors and the so-called Key Enabling Technologies in order to foster innovation.

The partners have developed very different approaches, reflecting the idea of smart specialisation.

During the conference, the new ways of exploiting emerging markets to enhance the competitiveness of regions in Central Europe will be 24

illustrated. In the morning session the results of the CluStrat project will be presented together with the European policies to support clusters and entrepreneurship. In the afternoon session, the participants will learn about the future developments for the Central Europe Area through the presentation of the Central Europe Programme 2014-2020.

Furthermore, there will be a panel discussion on how to strengthen regional competitiveness through clusters, comparing also experiences from other projects.

Matchmaking Event: creating business opportunities in China From October 21st to 23rd 2014, Mr. Calleja, Director General of the European Commission responsible for Enterprise and Industry, will lead the European “Mission for Growth” to Chengdu (Sichuan, China) to promote business partnerships between companies in Europe and China.

This mission represents an opportunity for European clusters to develop collaborations with clusters from China, thus creating greater possibilities for companies to access to new markets, products and services.

The ECCP launched a call for expression of interest to identify a delegation composed of 18 representatives from European cluster organisations that are willing to participate in

a cluster matchmaking mission to Chengdu (Sichuan, China) in the fields of: -Bio-chemicals, -Bio-pharmacy & biotechnology, -Environmental protection, -ICT, -Renewable energy.

Please download the full Call for the Expression of Interest and the Cluster Questionnaire.

Expressions of interest to participate in this mission must be submitted by the 10th of September 2014 to Mr. Mark Spinoglio ( c2cmatchmaking@spi. pt).

Matchmaking Event in Brussels: Undertake European Cluster Collaborations and bring about new opportunities On October 20th 2014, the European Commission’s DG Enterprise and Industry will organize a cluster matchmaking event in Brussels.

The event will take place in the framework of the European Cluster Conference 2014, set up

by DG Enterprise and Industry with the aim to foster cooperation between European clusters.

This event represents an opportunity for European clusters to explore common areas of interest for cooperation and complementarities in terms of sectoral, value chain and market focus, with a view to develop future cluster collaborations.

Participants will also have the possibility to attend the 2014 European Cluster Conference held in the same venue in Brussels on October 20th and 21st (however, registrations are separate).

The ECCP launched a call for expression of interest to identify a European delegation of representatives from cluster organisations from all sectors that are willing and committed to participate in this European cluster matchmaking event in

Brussels.

As highlighted in the call, expressions of interest to participate in this mission must be submitted by the 15th of September 2014 to Mrs. Soraya Bernard ( s.bernard@inno-group. com).

Workshop in Brussels: moving forward the EU policy agenda on cluster excellence On the 23rd of September a workshop will take place in Brussels to debate on the next EU agenda on cluster excellence and to identify additional activities which might be worth to explore and implement both at policy and operational level.

The discussion will move from the results of the European Cluster Excellence Initiative(ECEI) - cofinanced by CIP during the period 2009-2012.

The ECEI was an important initiative

of the European Commission promoting cluster management as key element of the EU strategy for the development of world-class clusters in Europe. More than 570 cluster organisations from 36 countries have benchmarked their cluster management performance using the ECEI methodology, and about 40 cluster instructors have been trained on how to improve the individual management skills of cluster managers.

In the new programming period 2014-2020, COSME will pursue the same efforts on cluster excellence and new Calls for proposals will be launched to provide the opportunity to additional European cluster organisations to benefit from the ECEI results.

The workshop targets an audience of around 100 stakeholders, including cluster policy makers, cluster managers and experts in the area of cluster management.

The following representatives will be invited as speakers, panellists or participants: - Policy makers responsible for cluster policies and programmes at national and regional level, and cluster managers particularly from top performing cluster organisations; -Representatives from the two generations of the CIP projects working on cluster excellence; -Experts involved in the current evaluation of the EU cluster initiatives on cluster excellence and cluster internationalisation.

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The new EU Cluster Portal The new EU Cluster Portal has been launched by DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission.

The portal provides information on key European initiatives, actions and events for clusters and their SMEs with the aim of creating more worldclass clusters across the EU. Over time, links with other EU actions of interest to clusters and their SMEs will be added to make the Portal as complete as possible.

The launch also coincides with the new phase of the European Cluster Observatory and the announcement of the 4th European Cluster Conference “Boosting SME growth, industrial renewal and regional structural change through modern cluster policies and support” which will take place in Brussels on 20-21 October 2014.

The EU Cluster Portal

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includes: • The European Cluster Observatory: providing information, mapping tools and analysis of EU clusters and cluster policy. Also informs about events and activities for clusters • Cluster Excellence: supporting benchmarking and training tools for cluster organisations.

• Cluster Internationalisation: enabling EU clusters to profile themselves, exchange experience and search for partners for cooperation within and beyond the EU. • Clusters and Emerging Industries: providing background information on EU initiatives which support emerging industries.

European Cluster Conference: registration open!

The fourth edition of the European Cluster Conference will take place on October 20-21 in Brussels.

The Conference, organised by the European Cluster Observatory, will address the role of clusters in supporting SME growth, industrial renewal and regional structural change and competitiveness.

It will gather 300 stakeholders including key policy-makers at European, national and regional level, practitioners and highlevel speakers from academia and industry to discuss latest trends and challenges for modern cluster policies and to identify priority areas for a new European Cluster Strategy for Growth.

During the conference, the latest analytical findings and trends will be presented to support evidence-based policy–making. This will help to illustrate

where opportunities exist, especially for cross-sectoral and internationalisation activities, and how they can be exploited.

New policy approaches, tools and initiatives will be discussed to provide input on how to design modern cluster programmes that create favourable framework conditions for growth and jobs.

More information on the programme and speakers can be found on the Conference dedicated webpage.

Participation is free of charge and registration is open until October 7.

As previously announced on this blog, a pre-conference matchmaking event will bring together cluster managers interested in cluster collaboration (please note that registrations are separate).

Save the date! workshop on renewable Energy and mountain environment A workshop on renewable energy and mountain environment will take place on October 3 in Verbania, co-organised

by ENERMHY, a Piedmontese Innovation Cluster composed by a group of independent companies (small, medium and large companies, including innovative startups) and research organizations active in the field of renewable energies and mini-hydro technology.

This workshop will explore the link between renewable energy and the alpine environment.

Renewable energy is regarded as a way to produce energy with a low environmental impact, especially if compared to traditional energy sources. The meeting will represent a moment to discuss all the renewable energy sources in order to understand if the mountain area can provide development

opportunities in this sector that are environmentally, territory and inhabitants friendly.

Therefore, the organisers have asked for a dialogue between the technical and the political level.

The workshop is divided into two sessions (morning and afternoon) and it is free and open to the public.

Registration is required no later than Thursday, September 25, 2014.

Click here to read the full program and download the registration form (website in italian).

Organisers: Polo Enermhy, ARS.UNI.VCO Association, Order of Chemists of Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta, Order of Geologists of Piemonte and Provincial Order of Engineers of the VCO.

AlpCafé: second round in Lyon The second round of the Alpcafè in Rhône-Alpes took place on the 8th of September, in the Matériautech of Plastic Eco Design Center, in Lyon.

Plastipolis, AlpClusters2020’s French partner, involved in the second round of AlpCafé 13 stakeholders from Rhône-Alpes region, including representatives of the Regional Council, Cluster managers and representatives of the Agency for international business development.

After a short presentation about AlpClusters2020, the goal of the AlpCafé and the actions selected through the analysis on 57 EU projects financed during the programming period 2007-2013, the work in the groups started. The participants, organised in 3 small groups, had to exchange views in order to prioritize the list of actions. This activity enabled to provide a priorization of the different actions, as well as to get the point of view of the stakeholdres on each action and to generate new propositions.

Participants assigned the priority to “Pilot projects/actions”, as they offer the possibility to see concrete results.

“Joint actions” (Joint funding and Joint cluster strategies) and “Pilot project/ actions” followed in the ranking, demonstrating the importance of collaboration and of its coordination. On the opposite, “Webtools” are seen as the less interesting action, perceived as a too “classic”.

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OPEN YOUR INNOVATION! Training Day for cluster managers and policy makers In the frame of the Alpine Space project called OpenAlps, CSP proposed on the 11th of September an interactive training session on the subject of Open Innovation, dedicated to cluster managers and policy makers. These were the objectives of the day: to share the main elements of the paradigm of OI (Open Innovation) to map the stakeholders and the Innovation actors that work in Piemonte to promote ideas to push Innovation and Competitiveness based on the approach of the Open Innovation The day began with a brief overview of the theoretical part, end it continued with an exercise in groups to involve all

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the participants in the debate.

During the project, an interesting SWOT analysis was developped regarding Open Innovation: Strengths Focus on breakthrough innovator companies Specific services and facilities for Alpine SMEs Education management phase Weaknesses Little trust in the system Lack of time Scarce knowledge of the OI concept Opportunities ICT technologies Deep involvement of regional project partners and intermediaries Networking and knowledge sharing activities Alpine SMEs OI ecosystem rising Threats Competitors Absence of interest in new potential participants Little interaction and collaboration among the SMEs participants The main result of the survey is that the Open Innovation approach

can play an important role in the development of our regions, despite the fact of not being currently well known. .

INNOVATION TO MARKET Innovation to market is a path, based on an idea of knowledge and collaboration promoted by 8 clusters of the Piedmont Region, in Italy. It aims to create a network of companies and research organizations to: • identify real business opportunities • create new partnerships and projects • activate processes of new products development This three objectives of innovation to market are translated into a formula at different steps: 1- First stage: the Conference The conference “The smart & green factory: effectiveness and efficiency in production” is the first meeting point to show and talk about best practices that can be relevant for the regional industrial context. The conference saw over

160 participants from several sectors.

2 - Second stage: the Corporate Meeting The Corporate Meetings are thematic meetings where companies can present themselves and show their skills.

3 - Third stage: the Meeting One-to-One This is a traditional B2B model, organized on request to start concrete partnership initiative.

The follow-up process will allow the tracking of new cooperations and the validation of the model that have been used in the recent past in the Piedmont Region.

Opportunities, knowledge, networking and training: all these values offered in “Innovation to Market”.

For more information http://i2m. torinowireless.it/

AlpClusters2020 final conference: supporting transnational cluster networks at Alpine Space level The AlpClusters2020 final conference will take place on the 22nd of October in Salzburg.

The aim of the conference is to present AlpClusters2020 and its results to a broad public of interested stakeholders, also by actively involving the participants in a simulation workshop.

Within AlpClusters2020, the outputs of projects implemented in the previous programming period (2007-2013) have been analysed to identify the most effective and sustainable actions.

This in order to improve the desing of future cluster policies and interventions. During the final conference this “toolbox of actions� will be illustrated and tested through a simulation workshop in which participants will be asked to formulate project ideas in the 6 priorities of the new Alpine Space

programme, and namely: -Improve the framework conditions for innovation in the Alpine Space -Increase capacities for the delivery of services of general interest in a changing society -Establish transnationally integrated low carbon policy instruments -Increase options for low carbon mobility and transport -Sustainably valorise Alpine Space cultural and natural heritage -Enhance the protection, the conservation and the ecological connectivity of Alpine Space ecosystems The conference will take place in the Salzburg Congress Centre and will start at 14.00, after the Alpine Space new cooperation programme launch conference.

For more information on the programme and to register follow this link.

Registration is possible until 17th of October.

Cluster Manager Award Contest 2014 now open!

The European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry Directorate General has announced that the 5th edition of the Cluster Manager Award is now open. The Award will be presented during the European Cluster Conference 2014 to be held in Brussels on the 20-21 October.

This award is a great opportunity for all cluster managers from across Europe to showcase their activities and demonstrate the excellence of the services they provide to their members and notably their SMEs. To apply for the award follow the instruction published on the website of the European Cluster Observatory project.

The deadline for submitting applications is the 8th October 2014

(midnight).

An international jury will shortlist 3 candidates who will be asked to present their success stories and key activities to the European Cluster Conference audience during the gala dinner to be held on Monday the 20th of October.

Finally, the winner will be decided by the votes of the Cluster Conference dinner participants.

The Cluster Manager 2014 winner will receive the award from a representative of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate General.

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Interview to Daniel Gottschald to discover the best practice of the Jiangsu International Technology Center in China An interview to Daniel Gottschald, manager of Chemie-Cluster Bayern, to discover the best practice of the Jiangsu International Technology Center, in China.

“European clusters should develop joint strategies and structures to optimize their business potential in China”.

Daniel, tell us just a few words about CCB. Chemie-Cluster Bayern (CCB) represents a network of more than 260 companies and research institutes of Bavaria’s chemical industry.

Companies cover a broad range of chemical products and technologies.

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Cluster management is provided by a team of 8 managers in the two business units “R&D” and “Market Development”.

We are registered on the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) with a complete profile and we are member of a European Strategic Cluster partnership (ESCP) called WIINTECH. CCB is gold labelled from the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI).

How did you start your internationalization path?

An international “Value Creation Partnership” (VCP) has been started to match worldwide industrial R&D needs with existing chemical solutions of companies and universities. In the period 2013−2017, CCB focuses on the exploration of “hidden markets” in the industry sectors of mobility (focus on aerospace, shipbuilding and defence), consumer goods (focus on toys and sports equipment) as well as heavy industry, exploitation of soil resources and metal

processing (steel and copper).

And what about your approach to Asia?

CCB has started to build up international clusternetworks at clean-tech sites especially in Asia both to realize joint infrastructural measures and demonstration projects and to create international business cases by developing joint systems of products and services for shared target markets. As part of the Wiintech-consortium, MoUs have been signed with partners in Brazil, India and the US. Together with British North-East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) and the Government of Jiangsu Province, CCB has initiated a “Jiangsu International Technology Center” (JITC) in Nanjing, China in order to coordinate Sino-European MatchMaking activities. A first “Europe-ChinaTechnology Summit” (ECTS) has been organized in June 2014 together with Departement Moselle and Jiangsu Association of Science and

Technology Innovation (JASTI) in Metz. CCB’s Site Development Program already includes projects in the cities of Yancheng, Wuxi and Suzhou (Jiangsu), Zhuhai (Guandong) and Yibin (Sichuan).

China is an important target region for CCB. More than 50% of cluster members are directly or indirectly involved into Chinese value chains.

After 4 years of intensive activities in China, CCB has developed a professional set of methods and cooperation offers for Chinese partners, covering the management structures of JITC and a special database for Chinese partners in the framework of the Value Creation Partnership.

By an Asia-wide “Site Development Program”, we support the creation and management of Sino-European industry parks in China in order both to secure critical supply chains and help European engineering companies to enter into the Chinese market.

On the other hand,

the Site Development Program also helps us to attract Chinese investors for Europe as an industrial production site. Due to CCB’s experience, multilateral, SinoEuropean partnerships help to optimize the outcome of projects in China and are more effective than bilateral cluster cooperation.

This is why JITC has been developed as a pilot structure to involve other European partner clusters of CCB into existing Chinese networks.

What kind of partnerships your cluster organization is looking for or offering?

CCB is looking for both European and Chinese partners to join the activities of JITC. Focusing on chemicals, clean-tech innovations, energy technology, new materials and bio-medicine (among others), partners of JITC will gradually build a high-end service platform for international technology transfer, best practice concepts of eco-efficient industry parks, matching of industrial raw materials, components and applications and intellectual property

services.

By using marketoriented operation methods of cluster management, the JITC shall become an efficient, multi-national service provider for consortia of enterprises, research institutions, universities, public authorities and other organizations.

The cooperation program of JITC currently includes site and company specific innovation workshops, consultancy regarding IP, M&A etc., global technology scouting and the initiation of innovation projects, services for investors and a human resource initiative.

From our perspective, one of the most important tasks yet to be done is to develop a clear European Site Promotion Strategy for global target regions such as China.

bioPmed award: a competition promoting research and development in healthcare projects

the Facebook page www.Facebook.com/ biopmedaward.

Innovation in the healthcare sector is important: be part of it!

The bioPmed Innovation Cluster has launched the “bioPmed award”, a competition that promotes R&D projects regarding ‘Health’ developed by piedmontese companies.

It is possible to vote for the projects on the website www. bioPmed.eu until the 1st of October. The award ceremony will be on the 6th of October, when the five finalists will present their projects to the public and the winner will be proclaimed.

Participation to the contest is free of charge.

The tickets for the award cerimony are available online here. It is also possible to register by sending a confirmation email to baldi@ biopmed.eu no later than the 3rd of October.

More information can be found also on 31

A new Regional Law on clusters, innovative networks and company aggregations in Veneto Region The transition period before the adoption of the new tool aimed at supporting cluster development in Veneto Region has now ended.

With the approval of the new Regional Law the Region acquired an appropriate instrument to support enterprises in successfully deal with the challenges set by the global market.

The new Law opens up to new ways of building up networks in the territory and relaunching the regional economy. In particular, it defines the criteria for the identification of industrial clusters, regional innovation networks and aggregations of companies.

Furthermore, the Law describes the scope of intervention to support these organisations.

According to the new Law: A cluster is a local productive system, located in a specific 32

area of the region and characterised by an elevated concentration of manufacturing and industrial companies, especially SMEs, operating in specific or connected production chains, relevant for the regional economy. In order to identify the clusters, the Region will take into account also elements like the presence of a documented history, the competitiveness in the international markets, the integration of vocational training and research centres and the presence of a cluster brand.

An innovation network is a system of companies and public/ private bodies located in the region but not necessarily next to each other, which can operate in different sectors and which are able to develop a coherent set of initiatives and projects relevant for the regional economy.

An aggregation of companies is a group of at least 3 companies which cooperate with the aim of developing a common strategic project.

The Region shall financially support projects submitted by

clusters, innovative networks and aggregations of companies in the following fields: Research and innovation; Internationalisation; Infrastructures development; Sustainable development and environment protection; Employment; Innovative entrepreneurship; Participation to European projects; Other possible initiatives aiming at enhancing companies’ competitiveness.

According to Marialuisa Coppola, Councillor for Economic Development, Research and Innovation of Veneto Region, one of the main objectives of this Law, defined also thanks to the close cooperation with companies, was to simplify as much as possible and give a greater momentum to the previous regional

Law, increasing the effectiveness of the regional support in this very critical moment for economic development.

The Councillor declared: “I believe that the objective of having a simple and essential regulation has been achieved. This is the Law that companies in Veneto were waiting for”.

Interview to Professor Roberto Grandinetti: the impact of the EU project Clustrat on the regional cluster strategy in Veneto During the final conference of the European project Clustrat (Central Europe), Professor Roberto Grandinetti (Padua University) was interviewed on how this project affected the regional cluster strategy.

“Clustrat is an European project gathering 18 partners from different areas around the idea of favouring cross-cluster cooperation (industrial districts or other kinds

of clusters). Veneto Region was part of this project and its pilot action was developed simultaneously to the approval of the new Regional Law on industrial policy, which introduced a new typology of aggregation: the Regional Innovative Network. The pilot action was used to test this new model, by bringing together different industrial districts and other subjects around the concept of Sustainable Living. Given that our houses contain different kinds of products and technologies (we have for instance household appliances, furniture, new materials, etc..), this “sector” was particularly suitable for testing this new kind of network and regional cluster.

The idea is not to completely overcome the traditional concept of industrial districts, but to create new opportunities, bringing together industrial districts, KIBS (Knowledge-Intensive

Business Services – i.e. organisations providing these services to companies), universities and leader companies, which are important even if they are not in a district.

Clearly, this regional network may be the embryo of a new and innovative regional cluster.

Sustainable Living could be the first Regional Innovative Network born in compliance with the new Regional Law. This pilot action also represented an occasion to strengthen the cooperation of Veneto Region with regions that are more advanced in certain technologies, like Baden-Württemberg, partner in Clustrat.”

The point of view of Tiziana Dell’Olmo (Regione Piemonte) on capitalisation projects Tiziana Dell’Olmo works in the Directorate of Strategic Planning, Regional Policies and Building of Regione Piemonte and has a

strong experience on transnational cooperation.

During the second Alpcafé we asked her to explain her point of view on capitalisation projects.

Do you think that capitalisation projects are useful for the new programming period?

In the current programming period capitalisation raised as key issue for all ETC programmes, and different initiatives have been launched, such as capitalisation calls (e.g. Alpine Space, Med) or project clustering processes (e.g. Central Europe, Med).

All these initiatives searched for solutions to some key questions: starting from the huge mass of outputs and results produced by projects, how to reach a comprehensive picture and a common understanding of the state of the art in the different thematic fields? How to make outputs available in a structured way and to foster their visibility, dissemination and transferability? How to increase and extend the impact of project

results? How to build on current outputs/ knowledge produced by current projects for the benefit of the new programming period?

The approach adopted

by Alpine Space Programme is especially promising; capitalisation projects are asked to identify relevant outputs, investigate synergies, identify and involve relevant players, thus paving the way for new projects in key thematic fields of the programming period 2014-2020.

I am convinced that such an approach, coordinated at programme level in order to maximise synergies, will give valuable orientations

to the new programme, facilitate the joint exploitation of knowledge, and, most of all, increase the capacity of projects to be “effective” and produce tangible results.

(Photo: pubblication “Programma Spazio Alpino - Focus sulla partecipazione italiana 2007-2013”)

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Second round of AlpCafé in Stuttgart (BadenWürttemberg) On the 29th of September 2014, experienced Cluster Managers and regional policy representatives from BadenWürttemberg gathered in Stuttgart for the second round of AlpCafé.

The aim of this second informal meeting with the local stakeholders was to prioritize a list of cluster internationalization tools for SMEs. 10 pre-selected tools were prioritized by the participants focusing on the following three dimensions: -International Visibility -RTD cooperation -Export / market access The three most relevant tools for “International Visibility” and “RTD cooperation” identified by the stakeholders in the AlpCafé were: 1-Joint cluster strategy 2-Joint fundings 3-Pilot projects The three most relevant tools identified for “Export, Market access” were: 1-Marketing support 34

2-Oversea Liasion offices 3-Joint cluster strategies Interestingly, “Joint Cluster strategy” was highly ranked in all the three dimensions.

We can therefore conclude that a Strategy for Cluster Internationalization is a precondition to foster the internationalization of cluster members, especially when SMEs are involved.

Interview with Dr. Ehrhardt (Photonics BW): “SMEs need support for going international” Internationalisation of SMEs as cluster member through cluster services was the topic of the 2nd AlpCafé organized at 29.09.2014 by SteinbeisEuropa-Zentrum in Stuttgart. Cluster managers and policy representatives were

invited to discuss about tools to support the internationalisation of clusters.

In this context 10 main tools for supporting internationalisation of SMEs through cluster management services were presented and priorizised. After the AlpCafé Cluster managers were in addition interviewed to get their personal view on this topic, too.

The following 2 questions were asked: 1. Do SMEs need support in internationalisation and if yes what are the main important tools to support this aim: Many SMEs, especially high-tech SMEs, do need support to enter new international markets, especially in Asia.

Useful tools to accelerate internationalization are: - visibility: joint booths on international trade shows with support by the government - R&D cooperation: international R+Dprojects, e.g. within HORIZON 2020, with the support of SteinbeisEuropa-Zentrum; delegation journeys, e.g. with the support of Baden-Württemberg International

- and export / foreign markets?: supply of market data, e.g. by the AHK 2. What shall policy do to support this aim?

Policy should encourage SMEs and should provide funding e.g. for the above described supporting measures.

Policy should also remove trade barriers.

And finally policy should ease bureaucracy wherever possible.

What’s next for the Alpine Space?

The Italian national conference of the program ALPINE SPACE 2007-2013 took place on October, 2nd, in Brescia.

The program, born in year 2000, aimed at increasing the competitiveness and attractiveness of the Alpine area, through the development of joint transnational cooperation into three priority areas: Axis 1 - Competitiveness and attractiveness of the cooperation area Axis 2 - Accessibility and connectivity Axis 3 - Environment and risk prevention The 2007-2013 programming period could count on a total funding of almost € 130 million, coming from the European Union ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). During this period, 57 projects were realized and some of them were presented during the conference.

During the conference, a deep analysis of the ended projects highlighted very positive results. As an example, for priority 1 were realized: -586 actions of technology transfer and improvement of cooperation between enterprises, research and public administration -111 actions to support the development of environmentally friendly products and production processes -109 support actions in models of rural-urban development -49 transnational economic clusters created or strengthened But what’s next? During the conference some news were presented regarding the next programming period going to 2020, including some guidelines related to the Macroregional Strategy called EUSALP. The efforts that the regions are doing to have a structured macroregional strategy confirm that the Alpine Space programme will be more and more

important for the next 7 years.

A new Cluster at PST-FR PST-FR, the Science and Techology Centre of the Canton of Fribourg, is a Cluster Initiative supported by the Swiss New Regional Policy. It has initiated and supported three clusters: 1-Swiss Plastics Cluster: a consortium of research and development, an education pole, a platform for exchanges and competence centre for plastics engineering.

2- Cluster Energy & Building: a regional platform for the exchange and collaboration between companies active in the building and construction industry.

Its activities are particularly aimed at providing support in the fields of ecoconstruction and energy efficiency.

3-Custer IT Valley: concentrated on improving the competitiveness of its members by acquiring knowledge and skills, as well as by the transfer of know-how and technology between academic and industrial

environments.

In the following days a new cluster will be launched Cluster Food & Nutrition A regional cluster focused on the food value chain: suppliers – producers – transformers and distributors of milk and meat with specific emphasis on improvements to health and wellbeing.

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Second AlpCafé in Fribourg: a look into the future The second round of Alpcafé organized by PST-FR, Swiss partner in AlpClusters2020, was combined together with an Interreg presentation of the new Alpine Space Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period.

We were pleased to welcome more than forty people to our second AlpCafé. The participants were stakeholders including research institute representatives, representatives from regional council, cluster managers, university professors and some managers.

Mr Sébastien Rieben, Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE, came specifically from Bern to offer a preview of the new framework for future cooperation projects on sustainable regional development towards 2020.

The second part of the conference started with the presentation of 8

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project proposals for the next Alpine Space Programme 2014-2020.

The objective was to enable the interested participants to interact and talk about a possible collaboration during the networking aperitif that followed.

Finally, PST-FR presented the findings of AlpClusters2020, with a special focus on the different suggestions to be applied at project and programme level.

After the presentation, the participants were asked to assess the results obtained by completing and ranking a list of the 10 best tools that could be used to foster cluster internationalisation.

Alpine Space Conference: what’s next?

The AlpClusters2020 partners participated to the Alpine Space Launch Conference on 21-22 October in Salzburg (AT) together with other 400 people.

The event was organised by the Alpine Space Joint Technical Secretariat to give an insight on the new cooperation programme, as well as to enable aspiring project applicants to present their project ideas and find possible partners.

The objective in the next programming period will be to create an innovative, lowcarbon, liveable and well-governed Alpine Space (these are the four priorities in the new cooperation programme).

The first ideas for new projects were presented during the Idea Arenas (one for each priority) and can be found on the project website on http://www.alpinespace.eu/projects/ project-ideas/first-call/

The 3 main barriers for SMEs to invest in KETs and go international As previously announced in this post, within the project EU Knights, a workshop with SMEs was organised by Proplast (also partner in AlpClusters2020) to explore the barriers to the adoption of KETs and to go international.

According to the participating SMEs, the 3 main barriers to invest in KETs and to go international are: 1. Uncompetitive (high) pricing The uncompetitive pricing is relevant, especially when new technologies enter in conflict with the existing products (molds, processes…). The return on investment must be high to have competitive prices. It has been pointed out that having competitive prices is easier if the innovation is made on the demand of a customer (market pull), because facing the market directly leads to extra expenses.

The pricing could be better adapted if the

customers’ demand was well defined without leading to a change in the business model.

Another relevant point that emerged during the workshop was the burden of taxation (especially in Italy) and of bureaucracy.

Also the costs of translating documents (for description notices or IP documents, for example) is too high.

2. Lack of external financing The procedure for demanding financial support is a complicated and long process, the feedback arrives late and the risk not to obtain the grant is too high. There are too many details required for expenses explanation and there is no support for incompany led R&D. Last but not least, the external financing usually covers some costs but does not take into account the margin, which is very important for a company to survive.

3. Link between education and industry According to the workshop’s participants, one of the main issues are the criteria for the evaluation of researchers/ professors, who are

currently evaluated for the number and the importance of their peer-reviewed papers.

It would be more useful and linked to the professional world to judge them also for the quality of their lessons and on the feedback from students or from companies which hire students.

Learn more about the project and its results on www.eu-knights.eu

Time for results!

The AlpClusters2020 final conference took place on the 22nd October in Salzburg (AT).

The AlpClusters2020 partners organized the final conference of the project, just after the Alpine Space Launch Conference, with the aim to present the results of the work done during the project, which is now going to the end in a few weeks, also by actively involving the participants in a simulation workshop.

The first two speeches were given by Ivan Boesso from Veneto Innovazione, coordinator of the project, who gave an insight on the project history, and Anne-

Sevérine Lay, project officer at the Joint Technical Secretariat, who highlighted some specific results of the past programming period and presented some new points about the new one.

Charly Pache, from Pôle scientifique et technologique du canton de Fribourg, presented the results of the work done: after the analysis of 800 outputs of the 57 Alpine Space projects and a survey which involved more than 650 project partners all over the Alpine Space, 30 suggestions to improve the next call for projects were presented. A specific focus on the tools highlighted a serie of 10 efficient tools more focused on clusters and internationalisation.

The objective of the conference was also to involve actively the participants and, during the simulation workshop, two thematic groups were created: Improve the framework conditions for innovation in the Alpine Space Increase options for low carbon mobility and transport The participants were asked to have a quick

brainstorming and decide the project idea to work on, taking into considerations the tools presented as the most efficient: Events, Joint funding, Joint strategies, Marketing support, Overseas liaison, Pilot projects and actions, Policy guidelines, Technical guidelines, Training, Web-tools Then, the participants were asked to present the project idea in the projects showcase, focusing on two additional questions/ topic: Clusters: would they be able to contribute to the project?

SMEs: would it be possible to involve them in the project? And how?

The two ideas for new projects were presented then to the public and we hope they will be a starting point for some new and profitable cooperation!

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ClusterPoliSEE Final Conference: boosting clusters policies and policy learning mechanisms in Europe Veneto Region will host the Final Conference of the EU project ClusterPoliSEE (South-East Europe Programme).

The conference will be on November 26 in Venice, Palazzo Franchetti, from 09.30 to 14.30.

ClusterPoliSEE’s main objective is to enhance the capacity of regional policy makers to confront, prevent and anticipate change, developing smart specialization strategies for cluster improvement, thus accelerating differentiation and structural change towards a knowledgebased economy.

25 partners covering 12 different South East Europe countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, 38

Slovenia, Slovakia, Albania, Moldavia and Serbia) have cooperated to develop smarter cluster policies supporting territorial cohesion, R&D and open innovation systems, encouraging transnational cluster cooperation between strong performing regions and weak performing regions, both represented, directing and adapting existing and future policies to international challenges.

The theme of the conference is “Boosting clusters policies and policy learning mechanisms in Europe”.

The conference represents the main occasion to disseminate the project’s results, arising from constant and mutual exchange of knowledge and discussion on transnational policies and instruments supporting clusters.

During the conference, the audience will have the opportunity

to discuss with representatives of European, national and regional institutions, the future of clusters policies in the light of the new programming period 2014-2020.

Information conference about INTERREG programmes in Franche Comté Region

Franche Comté region will organise the 25th of novembre and infoday on european programmes for territorial cooperation, INTERREG IVB NorthWest Europe and INTERREG IV C EUROPE, at Franche Comté Council.

INTERREG IVC provides funding for interregional cooperation across Europe. It is implemented under the European Community’s territorial co-operation objective and financed through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Operational Programme was

approved in September 2007 and the period for INTERREG IVC will last from 2007-2013. This programme follows on from the INTERREG IIIC programme which ran from 2002-2006.

The overall objective of the INTERREG IVC Programme is to improve the effectiveness of regional policies and instruments. A project builds on the exchange of experiences among partners who are ideally responsible for the development of their local and regional policies.

INTERREG NorthWest Europe (NWE) is a Programme of the European Union to promote the economic, environmental, social and territorial future of the North-West Europe area.

It invests EUR 355 million of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in activities based on the cooperation of organisations from eight countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Transnational cooperation is the core of the INTERREG IVB

Programme. It allows partners from different countries to work together on mutually beneficial projects to tackle issues that go beyond national borders. It produces transferable working models, and speeds up the process of innovation through the sharing of knowledge and development costs.

The collective benefits of such collaboration are invaluable; participating organisations acquire new skills, initiate effective working methods and increase their connections to European network.

This event allow to provide information to people from Franche Comt茅 and Bourgogne regions in France, thanks to the participation of the national representatives of the INTERREG NWE and of the INTERREG EUROPE

Plastipolis Strategic Seminar for the update of the roadmap

Pollutec exhibition in Lyon, from December 2nd to 5th

The French cluster Plastipolis will organise on the 4th and 5th of December its annual strategic seminar in Villebois (Rhone Alpes Region).

This seminar will be an oportunity to gather all the members of the 4 committees of the cluster (R&D, Training, International and Industrialisation) in order to update and develop the roadmap and the strategy of the cluster, and offer new perspectives to its members.

This seminar will be the occasion also to introduce some running actions supported by the cluster, such as the Triveo project, an initiative about recycling in the French Plastics Vall茅e, and the development of the Fablab in the Plastic Campus at Oyonnax.

This year, the Rh么ne Alpes region organises within the international fair Pollutec a regional village, in order to host all regional agencies.

There will be also a space dedicated to the Regional Innovation Strategy, which will host local clusters.

An innovation square will also be proposed in order to introduce demonstrator and innovation develop in Rh么ne Alpes region.

Pollutec is one of the leading general shows about the environment and energy industries.

This trade show brings together professionals from around the world to discuss about innovative solutions that allows the reduction of the impact of human activities on the environment, whether it be in industry, local authorities or in the service sector.

Pollutec expects 65 000 trade visitors, 2 300 exhibitors, 400 conferences, 200 innovations premiered.

This event will take place in Lyon, at Eurexpo ( http://www. pollutec.com/)

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AlpCluster2020 presented at TCI2014 in Monterrey 300 cluster pratictioners from 60 countries took part to the 17th global conference “Creating shared value through clusters for a sustainable future”in Monterrey (Mexico) organised

by TCI Network.

AlpClusters2020 was presented during the conference on November 12.

The Alpine Space Economy is largely based on SMEs and clusters are powerful tools to enhance competitiveness.

Transnational clusters networks or metaclusters are a step forward to favour crossborder cooperation and to increase the international visibility of cluster initiatives, in line with the EU strategic priority of establishing world-class clusters as drivers for innovation and competitiveness.

Potentialities from such cross-border initiatives are not known or not fully appreciated by SMEs or policy makers.

They need to be convinced by the added value of transnational cooperation.

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During the last seven years, the Alpine Space Programme had as main objective to enhance competitiveness and attractiveness by developing transnational cooperation. Lot of specific objectives have been defined such as encouraging innovation, strengthen research and innovation capacities of SMEs, foster cooperation between R&D centers and SMEs. 57 projects have been supported in three thematic fields called priorities: competitiveness and attractiveness, accessibility and connectivity, environment and risk prevention.

One of the last projects of this programme, AlpClusters2020, aims to contribute to the design of an integrated policy approach for the support of transnational clusters networks. The project concretely scanned the achievements and the experiences already gained in this Alpine Space Programme and some complementary EU programmes. It has, in particular: -Explore how transnational cluster can foster and accelerate SMEs

internationalization in order to facilitate the emergence of new industries.

-Valorise achievements of previous initiatives.

-Animate a deep and intense process of public private collaboration.

-Support a new policy development process.

AlpClusters2020 results discussed at the CluStrat seminar in Udine Active aging, green economy, smart mobility are the three emerging industries with high potential on which the European project CluStrat has focused.

None of these three areas, however, can be considered an industry in the strict sense. This implies that, in order to respond to the new markets generically identified by these three “labels”, it is necessary to integrate skills typical of different areas and to use various technologies.

Collaborations between traditional industries, providers of technology and services, facilitators of innovation and,

in particular, the establishment of structured relations between clusters and other actors are key to respond to this challenge.

The issue of transsectoral cooperation was discussed in Friuli Innovazione, which organised, in collaboration with Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, a meeting with representatives of clusters, universities and other actors of the local innovation system.

The main purpose of this event was to examine the results of the project CluStrat, in order to identify those that can be useful for the definition of the regional smart specialization strategy.

Veneto Innovazione participated to the event, and this was also the occasion to present the results of AlpClusters2020 to the local stakeholders.

The most interesting tools developed and implemented in the former programming period by the Alpine Space projects, identified through an analysis on projects’ outputs, have been presented to the audience. Afterwards, participants were

also asked to rank them accordingly to their capacity to foster clusters internationalisation.

Not surprisingly, pilot actions, trainings and joint cluster strategies have reached the top of the ranking. As a distinctive aspect, compared to the results of previous surveys and consultations, these group of practitioners does not consider joint funding really attractive, while they appreciate the possibility to define shared policy guidelines.

TELL US Awards: a contest promoting products for Technology Enhanced Learning There are still 10 days to apply for the TELL US contest, awarding products developed in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL).

The Contest is supported by DG Connect and by some of Europe’s leading ICT clusters from France, Sweden, Spain, the UK and Germany. Totally, the prizes amount to 70 000₏ offered by firms like HP, Telefonica and CloudMas (Amazon technology partner).

The contest is part of the project TELL US, financed within the 7th Framework Programme, and aiming at addressing the inertia of TEL deployment in European formal education systems.

Participation is open to all kinds of actors (e.g. large companies, SMEs, innovators, formal education actors, students).

The Contest will be designed as a two

stage contest with correspondent services levels: Stage 1) Regional contests - With each contest covering several countries: 4 regional contests will be organised by the project. 16 (4x4) winners will be selected for the Grand Final. The 1st prize level is offered by the consortium to encourage winners to develop and to showcase their products in new EU countries.

Stage 2) Grand Final - 4 final winners will be selected by the jury at European level.

Substantial second stage prizes will also be offered to the four overall final winners.

TELL US will work with these businesses, helping them to identify potential commercial agreements, pitch in front of investors & purchasers and advertise their product.

Applications can be submitted by December 20th.

To find out more about the contest, the regional areas and the prizes, visit the website http://tellusawards.eu/

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Survey results: assessing the effectiveness and sustainability of project outputs in the Alpine Space and beyond A survey was launched within AlpClusters2020 to assess the effectiveness and sustainability of a list of actions in promoting cluster internationalisation.

The actions, identified through a previous analysis on projects implemented in the Alpine Space and beyond, were: TRAININGS EVENTS WEBTOOLS MARKETING SUPPORT OVERSEAS LIAISON TOOLS TECHNICAL GUIDELINES POLICY GUIDELINES JOINT CLUSTER STRATEGIES JOINT FUNDING PILOT PROJECTS / PILOT ACTIONS The survey specifically targeted professionals who have been involved as partners in EU projects related to the themes of clusters, 42

cluster policies and SMEs. Though initially intended to be spread only among the Alpine Space community, the survey was opened also to a selection of projects outside this area, in order to get a broader picture.

The 34 answers received were analysed firstly aggregated and then separating the different typology of respondents (in particular, clusters/ networks/ company aggregations and institutions).

The aggregated resultsshow that pilot projects/actions, joint funding schemesand trainingare the actions generally perceived as the most effective in promoting clusters’ internationalisation and with good possibilities to be maintained after the end of the project.

Joint cluster strategiesare considered by respondents from clusters, networks and company aggregations the most promising typology of action. In particular, the high evaluation given to the sustainability of this output suggests that the alliances established within EU projects are long-lasting, as they bring new opportunities in terms of access to

know-how, research and innovation and help to enlarge the clusters’ market.

Institutional respondents consider joint funding schemes as the most relevant tools to promote cluster internationalisation, maybe because these actors have a comprehensive knowledge on the positive effects of these instruments, and are thus willing to promote them within their strategies for clusters and cluster internationalisation.

On the contrary, policyand technical guidelinesare not regarded as effective tools by the different typologies of respondents, though the evaluation improves as far as sustainability is concerned. This can be due to the fact that they do not require further investments to be maintained and can be used for a long time.

In projects focusing on developing guidelines, a feasibility study should be always integrated, considering also how to remove the barriers to their implementation.

It is important also to highlight that respondents generally assigned lower values

to the sustainability of outputs than to their effectiveness, highlighting that sustainability will represent a major challengein the programming period 2014-2020.

The results of the survey were compared to those of the AlpCafés, local consultations in which stakeholders were asked to prioritize the same list of actions. Interestingly, the results of the survey matched those of the AlpCafés, suggesting that EU initiatives supporting clusters internationalisation are becoming more and more aligned to the needs of their beneficiaries.

Staff exchanges for policy learning: experiences from the INTERREG IVC project ClusteriX In order to facilitate policy learning within the INTERREG IVC project ClusteriX the project partners carried out 3 types of activities for the interregional exchange of experience: 1. Peer group meetings with the aim to present and discuss good practice cases; 2. Study visits – which were organised in connection with the peer group meetings in order to save travel time and costs – providing the opportunity to meet and talk with stakeholders who are involved in the good practice cases in the host regions; 3. Staff exchanges in order to give interested partners the opportunity to learn more and in detail about one, maximum two, selected good practice cases. The staff exchanges usually lasted 2-3 days and involved policy makers, intermediaries as

well as beneficiaries, i.e. companies and universities, in the “host region”. The involvement of different kind of stakeholders from hosting but also visiting partner regions turned out to be an important success factor for the ClusteriX project and the staff exchanges.

The partners were free to choose the staff exchanges they were interested in, so the number of “visiting regions” ranged from 1 to 7.

Some partners were a bit disappointed that the staff exchanges did not allow to stay for a longer period of 1-2 weeks to experience the everyday work of the host organisation.

However, this was not feasible especially due to a lack of time resources of staff members, as nobody was able to leave their work for 1-2 weeks to work with a partner organisation.

Despite these constraints, the staff exchanges considerable contributed to a better understanding of the presented policies and tools, of the specific framework conditions and of the advantages and disadvantages of the transferability of

these practices to other regions.

How to build up and manage successfully cluster organizations This was the Cluster Academy 2014 By the second time, the Cluster Academy could be established as one module of a Europe wide training course (“Train the Trainers”) for people interested in cluster management under the lead of IESE Business School (University of Navarra).

The overall training lasts for about six to eight months.

All in all 59 participants such as cluster managers and ministry staff from all over Europe and even beyond (Russia and Trinidad and Tobago) joined the Academy.

Participants following the overall curricula or just the module in Linz were trained in a very

interactive manner on the cluster management model of Clusterland Upper Austria which also included a case study and a site visit at the premises of our committed partner RIC GmbH & BRP-Powertrain GmbH & CoKG. On November 24th half day training has been provided by trainers exclusively for people following the whole “Train the Trainers” curricula. To secure sustainability and also a long lasting benefit for all participants and for Clusterland as well, participants had the opportunity to book individual meetings with the cluster managers of Clusterland (C2C) to discuss joint project ideas (November 28th).

Based on the very positive feedback received, we plan to keep the format in a similar way in the upcoming year. www. clustercollaboration.eu

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Simplification of the cluster ecosystem in Veneto Region Following-up to the new Regional Law on Clusters approved in May 2014, Veneto Region has re-organised its ecosystem and has officially recognised 17 clusters.

The decision has been taken by the Regional Government, who has also defined the geographical and sectoral scope of each cluster. “With the approval of this measure – declared Marialuisa Coppola, Councillor for Economic Development, Research and Innovation of Veneto Region – the Law 13/2014 on clusters, innovative networks and company aggregations approved on May 30th can be considered completed” The recognised clusters have been reduced from 40 to 17, according to criteria taking into account their history, the geographical localisation of an elevated number of industrial and handicraft companies operating in the same production chain and the competitiveness (also potential) on national 44

and international markets.

The traditional clusters deserve to be valorised for what they have represented in the regional and European scene, and because they have characterized the history of the productive system in Veneto. Now, the big challenge for the future is to define new organisational formulas of the territorial system and to boost the regional economy. In the new Law, we call these new structures “innovative regional networks”.

Councillor Coppola also highlighted that this result could be obtained also thanks to a substantial effort of study and scientific analysis, agreed and supported at political level. “It clearly represents – said the Councillor – the dynamism and productive excellences of Veneto region, that are a guarantee for the re-launch of our economy”.

The local companies who choose to face the challenge of economic recovery can now do this also within aggregations, which better respond to the need of simplification and flexibility that the

market now requires.

Here is a list of the 17 industrial cluster recognised by the Region: 1. Calzatura della Riviera del Brenta (Footware) 2. Concia di Arzignano (Tanning) 3. Meccanica dell’Alto Vicentino (Mechanic) 4. Mobile del Livenza (Furniture) 5. Occhialeria Bellunese (Eyewear) 6. Orafo Vicentino (Goldsmith) 7. Calzatura tecnica ed articoli sportivi di Asolo e Montebelluna (Sportsystem) 8. Ceramica artistica di Nove e Bassano del Grappa (Artistic Pottery) 9. Elettrodomestici ed inox di Conegliano e del Trevigiano (Household Electrical Appliances) 10. Condizionamento e refrigerazione del Padovano (Airconditioning and Refrigeration) 11. Giostra del Polesine (Carousel) 12. Ittico del Polesine e del Basso Veneziano (Fishing) 13. Marmo e pietra del

Veronese (Marble and Stones) 14. Mobile classico della Bassa Veronese (Classical Furniture) 15. Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene (Wine) 16. Vetro artistico di Murano e vetro del Veneziano (Artistic Glass) 17. Vino della Valpolicella e Soave (Wine)

Recommendations from AlpClusters2020 How can be fostered clusters’ internationalization?

How encouraging the emergence of new sectors through clusters? How to guarantee the sustainability of transnational clusters networks?

The Alpine Space Action Plan presents 20 recommendations offering different solutions to get an answer and to have insights for policy intervention in the field. Besides, although these recommendations target especially Alpine Space Programme authorities and the local policy makers, even cluster managers and

business representatives could be inspired to design new innovative projects.

The full report version is more technical and provides several examples, the booklet version is a nice sum up with visuals that contributes to a quick message transfer.

Enjoy the reading!

Grow your Region!

Delivering Smart Specialisation and economic transformation through clusters.

The emphasis on economic transformation and on building interregional value chains call for a new generation of

cluster policy approaches. Clusters can be key delivery instruments for national and regional smart specialisation strategies, internal market, reindustrialisation and SME policy.

Using interactive formats, this conference will provide an opportunity for regional policy makers and cluster actors to share experiences on how smart specialisation strategies and clusters can help transform a region and drive growth. Building upon success stories and innovative practices, participants will learn about novel ways of implementing smart specialisation through cluster-based activities and crossclustering actions.

They will also have the chance to explore new partnerships for joint activities in the context of the new generation of European programmes such as ERDF, COSME and Horizon2020.

This event is jointly organised by DGs GROWTH and REGIO of the European Commission and will be held on 27th and 28th April 2015 in Bruxelles.

The European Cluster Days 2015 in Strasbourg On March 18th – 19th 2015, France Clusters, the national network of French centres of competitiveness and clusters, togeeher with othe r international institutions and in association with the European Parliament, organise the ”European Cluster Days” on the topic of: ”Clusters as the Driving Power of the European Economy”.

This event is part of the current discussion in Europe about economic growth and is a unique opportunity for an international debate: 400 experts from academia, clusters, enterprise networks and enterprises, from politics (national and European level), local authorities and other

related organisations are expected and will deepen the following questions: how to increase the performance of the European economy?

How to obtain sustainable and responsible economic growth? How to optimise public-private partnership with respect to these goals?

The final aim of the discussion is to analyse the evolution of European and international clusters and its impact on economic growth and new opportunities for development.

More information at: http:// europeanclusterdays. eu/

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The journey of AlpClusters2020 is about to end.

It was long only 16 months but for us it was a long rush, full of meetings and thinking times, vibrant discussions and in-depth analysis.

Let’s share what we have achieved step by step.

We started the journey mapping our key stakeholders.

Here the map is displayed: data can be sorted by region and by role.

Once identified our local players, we started connecting them with our project through our events: the AlpCafés.

AlpCafé is an involving experience since, in an informal and fair atmosphere, participants are guided by a facilitator to express their views and opinions about different topics. In our case one of the main debate concerned the benefits and the main barriers of cluster internationalisation initiatives.

Here you can read the main outcomes of such discussions. We liked also to extend our local view to other practitioners and stakeholders in the Alpine Space area.

This is the reason why we organised our workshop in Linz (May 14th, 2014).

We chose the PechaKucha 20x20 methodology, asking the speakers to give a presentation using 20 images each for 20 seconds. This special format in fact forces the speakers to stick to the point and gives no space for general statements, allowing time for the public to interact.

Once collected the views of our stakeholders, we approached the analysis of around 60 EU past funded projects to understand which actions have been more promising to support clusters competitiveness and which gaps are still to be fulfilled. It was an hard work but at the end we compressed all the information gathered in our Impact Assessment report.

Again we called for a public debate to understand the view of cluster managers, supporting 46

institutions and decision makers. So during the second round of AlpCafés we proposed to our stakeholder to rank and analyse a set of promising tools and initiatives to support cluster competitiveness. Here are the results.

We proceed thus to include into the loop other practitioners and project managers through an online survey whose results are published here.

We took then a moment to go in depth on the most popular initiatives: were all feasible? Are there any point of attention? We decided to give the green or the red light to each initiative in our Feasibility Report.

The end of such participative and analytical process was our Alpine Space Action Plan, a technical document comprising 20 policy recommendations enriched with suggestions, examples and references to the possible applying funds. We have tried also to make the ASAP more appealing and brief: give a look to our booklet where the recommendations are condensed and graphically sketched.

Finally as Cavafy in his Ithaca, we found at the end of our journey also unexpected outcomes: our blog with more than 100 posts and 22 video-interviews tracked not only the AlpClusters2020 milestones but it is still a valid instrument to give the voice to cluster managers, experts, practitioners who would like to share information and ideas. The blog still remains open to all you. Send us an e-mail if you would like to take part to our community.

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THE AUTHORS OF THE BLOG Frank Bau Frank Bau, (Dr. rer. pol., Diplomkaufmann) is Professor for Leadership, Strategic Management, and Sustainable Business Development at the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur. He had also been teaching Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management of Technology & Innovation at Business Schools at University level in Germany and the U.S. In the past, Frank Bau had been working in the power supply industry managing HR Development. During his doctoral programme focusing on rewards and incentives in startup companies he was managing a consulting network for university spinoffs at the University of Regensburg, Germany. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) he was working in the field of Entrepreneurship Education. In his current research he focuses on Human Resource Management, Corporate Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Networks.

Chiara Beltrame Chiara Beltrame holds a Master’s Degree in European Studies, a specialisation in design and management of EU projects and professional experience at the European Commission.

She has a good knowledge of the cohesion policy and structural funds, especially in the field of employment, while cluster policy represents for her a new challenge.

Jacques Bersier Studies in mechanical and electro engineering at the university of applied sciences (1975/1978). Several years of work experience in the engineering industry in Switzerland, as well as the United States. Since 1984 professor for mechanical engineering and numeric simulation at the University of Applied Sciences Fribourg, a partner school of the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland. 1994 diploma in Business Informatics at the University of Freiburg. Since 2003 deputy director of the HES-SO//Fribourg School of Engineering and Architecture and head of applied research and development. In 2005 he created a Plastics cluster and since then he is coordinator of this cluster. Since 2008 he is coordinator of the Science and technological center of the canton of Fribourg. Since 2009, he is member of the research center for competitiveness at the University of Fribourg.

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Ivan Boesso Ivan Boesso is Head of the European Policies Department of Veneto Innovazione S.p.A..

An electronic engineer by training, he has worked with the Regional Agency since 1995. His responsibilities included supporting SMEs in EU, national and regional research and innovation programmes participation, evaluation of research and innovation projects, preparation, negotiation and management of EU funded projects.

He is also involved in supporting the development policies and in the evaluation of projects related to research and innovation.

Juliana Cerutti Juliana Cerutti graduated in International Relations and Protection of Human Rights at the University of Turin.

She has been working at Piedmont Region (Italy) since 2010, where she has developed a significant expertise on internal trade and specifically on the regulation of economic activities.

Her tasks include the analysis of the European and national regulations related to trade and their implementation in the Piedmont Region, as well as the drafting of legislative and administrative acts. She has also supported municipalities and individuals to correctly implement the Regional regulations in several areas, like the modernization of the distribution system, the promotion of a balanced development of small, medium and large retailers, the maintenance of a widespread commercial presence in small towns and in disadvantaged areas and the improvement of historic centres.

Fabrizio Conicella Fabrizio Conicella has more of 15 years of experience managing organizations, Business development depts and R&D and technology transfer projects. From January 2008 until june 2012 he has been General manager and he is now Director of Business development of Bioindustry Park Silvano Fumero Spa, a science park focused in life sciences and coordinator of bioPmed health care cluster. He is also contract professor at UniversitĂ di Torino and UniversitĂ Piemonte Orientale in innovation management, and business planning, President of Ephoran-MIS, a company specialised in imaging, and member of the steering committee of Council of European Bioregions.

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THE AUTHORS OF THE BLOG Maria Sole D’Orazio Maria Sole is the AlpClusters2020 project manager on behalf of Veneto Innovazione.

European projects, innovation, collaborative networks and cluster policy are her professional foci With a background in communication sciences, Maria Sole graduated with honours in marketing at the University of Padova where she has particulary deepened the topic of virtual communities as tool to stimulate networking and collaboration.

Jürgen Dienstl Jürgen has been working as an project manager within the plastics cluster (Clusterland Upper Austria GmbH) since 2004. He has a lot of experience in regional, national and European colaborative projects. He is responsible for mold makers, injection molders, the special interest group SMART PLASTICS and some internationalization activities

Laura Fusani Laura is the contact person in the ALPCLUSTERS2020 project for Proplast, the New Materials Cluster based in Piedmont Region (Italy).

Employed in Proplast since 2005, she has been involved in different projects aiming at the cluster-strenghtening (internal level) and at the improvement of the network of sectorial clusters that Proplast is part of.

At international level, she participated and managed different European projects; all these projects are related to cluster-management and to the creation of an international active network for cluster development, experience exchange and development of companies competitive advantage.

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Maudez Le Dantec Maudez Le Dantec is project manager at Plastipolis.

He obtained an engineer degree at AgroParisTech, in food packaging and a master degree in innovation and new technologies management at Grenoble Business School.

He jointed Plastipolis in 2010 and was involved in several EU funded project such as NanoCom or ALPlastics

Alexandra Musy Alexandra Musy studied Geology at the University of Fribourg. She has held posts as managing partner of an independent Tour Operator based in western Switzerland and prior to that as Marketing and Sales Assistant for a renowned company active internationally and based in Switzerland.

Currently she is working at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland as scientific collaborator within the Science and Technology Hub of the canton of Fribourg.

Charly Pache Diplomas: Diploma in Business Computing, Master of Sciences in Business Administration (major Innovation and Entrepreneurship) Experience: Internet technologies and business, Automotive and Space systems, Enterpreneurship and Innovation (current) Lives in: Fribourg, Switzerland Born: 1976

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THE AUTHORS OF THE BLOG Caroline Pin Caroline Pin is head of international development at Plastipolis.

Mrs PIN was previously senior export manager for the US based office of ERAI, international development agency of Rhône-Alpes region. She obtained a master degree from Political Institute of Lyon and a special degree of international business from Toulouse University.

She was also involved in several EU funded project, such as WIINTECH or ALPlastics

Angelika Stift Angelika Stift has been working in the communication department within the plastics cluster (Clusterland Upper Austria GmbH) since 2002. She is responsible for all online media (newsletter, websites, ...)

Hartmut Welck Hartmut Welck, with a degree in Agronomics, is senior project and innovation manager since 7 years at Steinbeis Europa Zentrum in the area of innovation, project and cluster (network) management.

He is specialised in Life Sciences (Biotechnology, Food, Bioeconomy) and consults SMEs and research organizations on transnational technology transfer as well as on project, innovation and cluster management.

Since 2010 he is manager of a national cluster “Bioactive plant food” with almost 20 members.

He was and is involved in many Framework Programmes of the EU as coordinator as well as lead partner as well as in Interreg projects “Alps4EU” which has the aim to set up meta clusters in the Alpine space area as well as in the project “AlpCluster 2020” which aims on the capitalization of results from EU projects in the area of cluster internationalisation as sound basis for precise policy recommendations.

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The views expressed in this document, as well as the information included in it, do not necessary reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission and in no way commits the institution.

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Edited by Veneto Innovazione Via Torino 105 - 30172 Venezia Mestre Released in January 2015

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