POLICY BRIEF - CLUSTER POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF EU STRATEGY 2020
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Project: “Europe INNOVA Communications”
Contract ENTR/07/049
POLICY BRIEF – CLUSTER POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF
EU STRATEGY 2020
to the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General
Directorate D2 - Support for innovation
Prepared by:
Rolf Reiner and Christoph Gelzer
(i.con. innovation GmbH)
September 2010Clusters as catalyst for flagship initiatives
Smart, sustainable and inclusive growth are the key objectives indicated by the Europe 2020 Strategy
paper. Increased economic interdependencies and global impacts of the financial crisis demand a
sophisticated handling and planning at the political level in various areas of importance. In the global
environment Europe has many advantages ranging from a talented workforce, a powerful
technological base and strong industries often cumulated in clusters. Still, competition needs to be
steadily faced in order to facilitate beneath economic strength the challenges high employment rates,
high level research and innovation, sophisticated handling of the climate change and energy situation,
for high grade education and for the combat against poverty. Seven flagship initiatives will catalyse a
wide range of actions at national, EU and international levels.
Two of these flagship initiatives will gain from efficient cluster policies:
"Resource efficient Europe" to support the shift towards a low carbon economy, to increase
the use of renewable energy sources, to modernise our transport sector and to promote
energy efficiency and
"An industrial policy for the globalisation era" to improve the business environment, notably
for SMEs, and to support the development of a strong and sustainable industrial base able to
compete globally.1
Through their value networks and proven channels between businesses, research and academics,
clusters provide efficient catalysts for innovation policy interventions. They are able to transform
policy interventions into value creation and multiply public spending by private investments.
In the past decades European Cluster Policies played an important role for innovation and the
transfer of technologies and thus and through the World Class Cluster Approach started by Europe
INNOVA Initiative of the European Commission showed its commitment and aims to lift cluster
activities on a higher level. Nevertheless, possibilities exist to further enhance the quality of cluster
activities.
This document indicates which direction cluster policies could take to contribute to the growth targets
set up by the European Commission and communicated in the Europe 2020 Strategy.
1. The context: Evolution of cluster policies in Europe
Since 2005 and the Lisbon Partnership for Growth and Jobs, Innovation has been the focus of
various documents issued by the European Commission: “More Research and Innovation” (2005), “A
broad-based innovation strategy” (2006), “Reviewing Community Innovation policy in a changing
world” (2009). All of them have contributed to build an innovation policy framework that already
brought some very positive results: A more research and innovation-friendly state aid regime, more
IPR support measures, improvement of skills (Universities, research, etc.), a progressed cluster
support framework as outlined in “Towards world-class clusters in the EU” (2008), a Small Business
Act adopted etc. There were also positive results regarding new supply-side and demand-side
measures: On the supply side, more EU innovation and research funding has been made available
(86 billion Euro through Cohesion Policy between 2007-2013 for Innovation only), participation of
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COM (2010) 2020 - EUROPE 2020 A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth
Page 2SMEs in FP7 has been facilitated, the European Institute for Innovation and Technology and 5 Joint
Technology Initiatives have been launched and a support service for innovative SMEs – the Europe
Enterprise Network – has been created. On the demand side, the Lead Market Initiative has been
launched, standardisation has evolved to support innovation, and public procurements have also
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increasingly be used to provide incentives for innovation.
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In May 2010 the Competitiveness Council amongst others claimed
1. The regional level is key for innovation; in this respect, the European innovation policy should
ensure that adequate support for innovation actors, including SMEs is provided also at
regional level through the available instruments and making a synergistic use of the existing
funding opportunities and other initiatives (Competitiveness and Innovation framework
programme, Structural Funds, R&D Framework Programmes, and the Knowledge and
Innovation Communities of the EIT);
2. Clusters play an important role for innovation, gathering researchers, creative people,
enterprises and technology to create new products and services for the world market as well
as improving regional attractiveness; the efforts need to be continued to remove barriers to
trans-national cluster cooperation, and to encourage the emergence and consolidation of
world-class competitive clusters across Europe;
These statements confirm continuous efforts of the European Commission and the Member States
towards stronger clusters. The concept of world-class clusters4 is gaining acceptance on all levels
(European, national, regional) and calls for consolidated activities.
Cluster policies as element of the European innovation policy approach aim at supporting regions and
business cases and are set up to guarantee a maximum of synergies between European Member
States and regions, between national ministries and Directorate Generals by increasing the
coordination of the variety of policies and measures. Increased economic interdependence demands
a more determined and coherent policy response. The delivery of smart, sustainable and inclusive
growth is an important means to create new jobs and to offer a sense of directions to the European
society. Europe has the capability to reach the objectives set and targets aimed at.
Any serious cluster policy must be considered a long-term initiative as substantial benefits from
clustering typically takes 5-10 years to accrue. Consequently any European initiative truly committed
to establishing smart, sustainable and inclusive growth needs to be based on an integrated approach
on regional, national and EU level. In addition, a successful cluster policy would not simply be an
industry policy approach, as it also includes activities that relate to the majority of other policy areas
(i.e. education, training, research and development, regional development, small business, industrial
relations, regulations, finance and taxes, agriculture, defence, health etc). Therefore a successful
policy would need 'whole of policies' endorsement.
2
Paragraph extracted from: DG Enterprise and Industry Report “Innovation Clusters in Europe: A statistical
analysis and overview of current policy support”
3
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/intm/114637.pdf
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COM (2008) 652 – Towards world-class clusters in the European Union: Implementing the broad-based
innovation strategy
Page 32. State of the art: Achievements so far
Nowadays, economic activities are moving toward knowledge-intensive business,
accompanied by rapid development of technology in a globalized economy era. In its communication
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“Reviewing Community innovation policy in a changing world” the European Commission states
strengthened collaboration among different innovation actors and improved policy learning between
innovation policy makers and public innovation support bodies at different levels. Both, Europe
INNOVA and PRO INNO Europe® raised level of excellence of clusters in the EU Member States
and promoted cluster cooperation as a way to improve innovation capability and strengthen European
positions in global markets. Nevertheless, synergies between policies and instruments at different
levels need to be further developed across the European Union.
The analysis of the progress achieved in recent years shows that the EU has rightly identified
innovation as a key driver for a prosperous future. However, making the EU a vibrant space for
innovation requires continuous attention and calls for a better exploitation of the potential of the
partnership between the Union and its Member States by taking more focussed and better
coordinated actions at all levels.
Today, breaking barriers and improving framework conditions for the evolution of world class clusters
in Europe seem to be the most promising answers to the ongoing globalisation trends.
3. Contributions of cluster policy to EU Strategy 2020
Cluster policy is a multidimensional balancing act between analysis and policy actions allowing for
bottom-up initiatives and top-down steering. The Europe 2020 Strategy clearly states that the answer
to new growth and job creation, to growing societal challenges such as climate change, scarce
energy and other resources is innovation. Countries such as China and South Korea are becoming
competitors in a fast-changing global economy, as they are catching up fast and massively investing
in know-how and innovation. Open innovation and global sourcing for know-how and talents require
cooperation irrespective of borders for companies and people. The upcoming Europe 2020 Flagship
Initiative Innovation Union will be based on “collective responsibility for putting in place a strategic
research and innovation policy” ... “mutually reinforcing policies at both EU and Member States level”.
Due to its wide-ranging influence, cluster policy is one of the most promising areas where such
objectives should turn into action.
3.1 Transnational cluster partnerships addressing emerging markets
The recent global economic and financial crisis accelerated economic change in various sectors.
Recovery from the downturn can be observed much faster in globally leading clusters with high
innovation potential and respective RTD spending. Instead of supporting new fragmented clustering
efforts, EU initiatives should focus on the support on such clusters striving for excellence. To this
purpose, regional and national initiatives should be addressed which are already in place and
mandated by a critical mass of cluster members.
In order to maximise the impact of efforts, EU cluster actions should address clusters aiming at
emerging markets. Europe’s strengths lie in the combination of services and the respective
production sector giving evidence to cross-sectoral approaches. Innovative services and business
Page 4models are able to link different sectors thus creating new markets which could strengthen existing
production. Newly designed applications and business models call for modified products. One of the
most promising areas will be the mobility sector, converting the automotive sector from pure vehicle
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production to a variety of business models delivering “mobility solutions”. Therefore, mobility services
are candidate for a European lighthouse initiative linking satellite enabled services, greening of
transport (including market introduction of electric vehicles), location based services and renewal of
the automotive sector in Europe. A European Partnership in this area will mobilise high industrial
investments in RTD and innovation and result in spill-over effects to other industries.
Further candidates for front-runner actions should be designed in a similar way: Europe’s uniqueness
is its innovation potential and creativity linked with complete value chains (including production)
allowing to directly transform knowledge into business.
In many cases, clusters are spread across administrative borders and Member States’ areas.
Efficient policy intervention therefore needs transregional and transnational approaches offering
comparable services to all cluster members. Such approaches should be in the focus of European
support, contributing as well to the development of a single European (innovation) market. Whereas
cluster management services within a specific cluster should be comparable for all members,
services for each cluster need to be unique in order to cover specific requirements.
3.2 Monitoring cluster development
Monitoring of clusters plays an important role in the steering and development process of cluster
initiatives worldwide and for policy learning and improvement. New approaches are being tested and
validated in the various clusters depending not only on the creativity of the involved workforce.
Successful means and new trends can be spotted and made available for other clusters and policy
makers in Europe leading to higher quality of the cluster activities or diversified offers and possibilities
for cluster members.
In Europe, the European Cluster Observatory – which is now in its’ second phase - plays the critical
role in the monitoring process. Whereas the Observatory provided a mapping for 38 sectors across
European regions in its first phase, it has started to update its cluster mapping with improved
statistical analysis and further data like cluster performance from 2009. The third phase of the
European Cluster Observatory should be dedicated to deliver new methodological approaches
adapted to “excellence of clusters” and “emerging industries”. Policy addressing the development of
world-class clusters needs measurement of aspects like framework conditions for clusters, quality of
cluster management, or strengths of clusters (in addition to strength of firms belonging to a cluster).
Development of such new approaches may benefit from a regular “round table” of experts from the
European Cluster Observatory, the European Innovation Scoreboard and similar activities in Europe
(eventually including the respective OECD departments).
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COM(2009) 442 – Reviewing Community innovation policy in a changing world
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New mobility services may call for new types of vehicles, but new vehicles (e.g. battery electric vehicles)
are pushing new business models and mobility services.
Page 53.3 Governance of EU cluster support
European and Member States’ policy interventions in response to the global financial and economic
crisis are designed as stimulus measures to show short term impact in order to reduce the downturn
of European economies. Whereas these interventions are indispensable for Europe to recover from
the crisis, they hold the risk to move innovation policies from a holistic approach back to pure
industrial policies. Faster recovery of strong clusters from the economic downturn gives strong
evidence of the European cluster policy approach.
Therefore, activities developed and implemented so far not only need to be maintained under the EU
Strategy 2020 but need to be further improved by streamlining EU cluster actions under different
programmes. A most reasonable approach should link the upcoming CIP (period 2014 to 2020) with
the FP7 initiative Regions of Knowledge and work more efficiently with cluster programmes under
ERDF, INTERREG and EIT as well as involve national programmes in support of cluster
development. In practice this could be achieved by specific eligibility rules for participants in CIP and
Regions of Knowledge proposals.
4. Next steps
The European Commission is asked to evolve still fragmented cluster supporting actions towards a
single programme based on its pillars CIP, Regions of Knowledge (RoK) and related activities under
the Framework Programme, designing well-adjusted calls allowing applicants to combine elements
from the different instruments.
INTERREG calls should take care of prospects resulting from existing (cluster) partnerships and
lessons learned from CIP and RoK projects.
The Commission is asked to assist Member States in the design of efficient cluster support under the
Structural Funds. (Co-ordinated) cross border calls of Member States could be motivated through
incentives under the RoK or CIP pillar.
Of utmost importance for future competitiveness and efficient implementation of EU Strategy 2020
will be, that systemic innovation policy based on the world-class cluster approach will be further
developed and implemented instead of being detached by less efficient (and outdated) linear RTD
and industrial policies.
Page 6FURTHER READING
COM (2009) 442 – Reviewing Community innovation policy in a changing world
DG Enterprise and Industry Report “Innovation Clusters in Europe: A statistical analysis and
overview of current policy support”
COM (2008) 652 – Towards world-class clusters in the European Union: Implementing the
broad-based innovation strategy
COM (2010) 2020 - EUROPE 2020 A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth
COM (2010) xxx – Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative Innovation Union: Transforming Europe
for a post-crisis world
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