Pôles de compétitivité Competitiveness Clusters

Political issues French industry (esp. SMEs) mainly middle- to low-tech industry Weak link between research & industry Tendency to scatter public support

Competitiveness clusters « Pôles de compétitivité » are –clusters, –gathering firms, higher education centres and research units, –working on joint projects (mainly R&D&I projects), –with a dedicated governance body (non-profit organization) defining a common strategy.

Timeline 2004: call for projects 2005 (& 2006): 71 projects are granted the pôle de compétitivité label 2008: evaluation

Selection criteria Creation of high value-added products International visibility, critical mass Governance & partnership Consistent economic development strategy

A 4-step selection procedure Ranking at the regional level –local government & local representative of the central government National analysis by central ministries Independent expert group Political decision

Map of the pôles

Some examples MINALOGIC (Grenoble): nanotechnologies, embedded software AXELERA (Lyon): environmentally friendly chemistry PLASTIPOLIS (Oyonnax): plastics processing

« POLE » Governance body Firms Research centers Education institutions Governance & oversight bodies Oversight bodies Central Govt Local govt (regions, main cities, etc.) Ministries & agencies Local representatives of central govt

Evaluation results A promising policy Too early yet to measure effect on employment or innovation Government service delivery is OK Improved knowledge-sharing between firms & research centres Improved knowledge-sharing between firms

Key factors of success A long-term policy Involvement of firms –Local authorities should help and support, but not decide and meddle No « one size fits all »! All local innovation services must be cluster-oriented

What about territories? Pôle de compétitivité are not based on territories but on networks They have blurred boundaries They must reach a critical mass (even on a niche market)

What about cohesion? Pôle de compétitivité are not limited to assets-rich territories (nor to high-tech) The number of clusters on a territory is a major asset Positive spill-over help convergence

Conclusion No opposition between pôle de compétitivité policy and territorial cohesion. Cohesion policy should facilitate spill-over, not hinder leaders development. Higher expectancy policy (with evaluation and sanction) gives better results.