9 June 2016
Orkestra contributes to Kick off European INTERREG Project CLUSTERS3 “Leveraging Cluster Policies for Successful Implementation of RIS3” led by SPRI in partnership with Tecnalia and TCI Network.
Right before the Smart Regions Conference in Brussels James Wilson, Aitziber Elola and Anastasiia Konstantynova, researchers at Orkestra, have supported SPRI in the launch of the INTERREG project CLUSTERS3 “Leveraging Cluster Policies for Successful Implementation of RIS3”, held in the Basque Country.
The European project CLUSTERS3 is one of the 64 selected by the European Commission in the INTERREG EUROPE call and aims to strengthen and enhance the implementation of the cluster policies and their inclusion within the framework of Regional Smart Specialization Strategies (RIS3). The Basque County together with other regional and national governments from Italy (Piedmont), Latvia, Poland (Lubelskie), Hungary (Hajdú-Bihar) and United Kingdom (Scotland and Northern Ireland) have partnered with Tecnalia and TCI_Network to facilitate the process of learning and policy upgrade. Based on the wide experience in cluster mapping and policy design, especially in the context of the Basque Country, Orkestra is supporting the project with conceptual guidance in cluster policy benchmarking and design.
The first two days of the Kick off Meeting were structured as a Learning Workshop focused on interchange between project partners and their experience in clusters, cluster policies and RIS3 strategies. Taking into account that the 7 participating regions expressed interest in joining the project based on common characteristics, still their regions´ specific features on clusters, cluster policies and RIS3 widely vary. Through a unified learning framework, elaborated with Orkestra´s guidance, regional partners have presented their experiences, identifying common areas of interest, potential contributions and expectations. Although seeing cluster policy as a complex matter, the strong desire to learn from other partners confirms the benefits of cluster policy and its relevance in the context of RIS3.
The third day of the event, organized as an Open Conference, took place in the BEC Bilbao during the BIEMH Exhibition. In the welcoming speech, Alexander Arriola, General Director of SPRI, highlighted the importance of the CLUSTERS3 project, especially given the context of the modernization of Basque Cluster policy presented in the first Basque Cluster Day in 2015. Tecnalia and IK4 Research Alliance then reflected on the evolution of the Basque cluster policy, seeing it as a requisite for building regional industrial strengths and reaching to big and small companies across a multitude of sectors. Before a closing roundtable with Basque cluster associations (ACICAE, AFM, BIOCLUSTER, Clúster ENERGÍA, GAIA, HEGAN), James Wilson chaired a panel discussion with CLUSTERS3 Partner Regions, bringing them on a journey from the design through the implementation and to the evaluation of cluster policy and its current integration into RIS3.
The three day Kick Off meeting is only the first project event in a long-term regional experience interchange. Along with peer-review exercises and delivery of Policy Learning Documents and Action Plans this CLUSTERS3 project will take the participants across all partner regions leveraging smoother cluster policy integration into their regional smart specialization strategies. The next learning stop on clusters and RIS3 is in Piedmont, Italy.
