1. Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Update on EU cluster initiatives and on the Cluster Internationalisation Programme EU Cluster Weeks – main Anchor Event Hannover Messe April Hanover
dr Ulla Engelmann
Head of Unit
DG GROW F2 Advanced Technologies, Clusters & Social Economy

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

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

4. Cluster Internationalisation Programme for SMEs (COSME, €19M)
Supporting SME access to global value chains through clusters
European Cluster Collaboration Platform
International cluster matchmaking events in third countries and Europe
European Strategic Cluster Partnerships - Going International (ESCP-4i)
"Clusters Go International" action

5. Priority Target Markets by European clusters
87% of European clusters interested to support internationalisation of their SMEs in third markets,
only 34% actually doing it*.
* Data based on a survey of 300 clusters across Europe conducted in June 2017

6. Administrative Arrangements to promote
Cluster cooperation
Administrative Arrangements on Cluster Cooperation are signed by DG GROW to promote policy exchanges and cluster cooperation with national authorities from third countries
Objective: to facilitate linkages between clusters in mutual economic interest and better help SMEs find strategic partners
USA (US Department of Commerce, April 2015)
Korea (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy & KICOX, May 2018)
Taiwan (Taipei Representative Office in the EU, June 2018)
Canada (envisaged to be signed in June 2019)
1st EU-Canada Cluster Matchmaking Event, Toronto, 5-7 June
Pre-networking event with 5 Canadian Superclusters in the context of the EU Cluster Week event, Hanover Messe, 1 April 2019

7. International Cluster Matchmaking events 2019
EU-Taiwan: 6-8 March, Lyon (France)
Global industrie Fair - 24 EU and 12 TW clusters, 90 C2C and 134 C2B meetings
Focus areas: Manufacturing technologies; Mechanical engineering; Smart industry and connected factory: co-botics, augmented reality, digitisation of production
EU-South MED: 9-11 April, Casablanca (Morocco)
Logismed Fair
Focus areas: Transport and logistics; Agriculture and food industry; Energy and
environment; ICT and Textile
Europe: 14 May, European Cluster Conference, Bucharest (Romania) – open for 150 clusters
EU-Canada: 5-7 June, Toronto (Canada)
in cooperation with Canada’s 5 Superclusters
Focus areas: Advanced manufacturing; digital industries, AI, agro-food and Blue Growth
EU-Korea: 4Q 2019 (tbc)

8. EU 'Clusters Go International' action
European Strategic Cluster Partnerships for Going International (ESCP-4i)
Promoting cluster cooperation for industrial leadership in global markets
25 Cluster Partnerships Going international ( , Budget: 7,24 mio €)
134 cluster organisations representing over 19,000 SMEs
Supporting joint international strategies and SME collaboration
with partners in third countries
Next Call to be published Q (8,3 Mio€ - 24 partnerships)

9. EU Cluster Partnerships targeting Canada 2018-2019
A total of 10 EU Cluster consortia are targeting cooperation with Canada :
Advanced packaging – AdPAck (Phase 2)
Digitisation of industry / advanced manfacturing systems
- PIMAP – Photonics for International Markets and Application
- DIA - European Digital Industry Alliance
Medical devices – LASER-GO GLOBAL (Phase 2)
- MAGIA- Medtech for Global internationalisation
Agro-food - NF4 New Frontiers in Food (Phase 2)
Mobility - MobiGoIn-Action (Phase 2)
Space: earth observation application services SPACE2IDGO (Phase 2)
- SpaceWave for Blue Growth
Geo-energy - Geo-Energy for the XXIst Century
Important cooperation potential with Canada’s 5 Superclusters
European Strategic Cluster Partnerships for Going International

10. 35 events organized until now
Awareness-raising campaign across Europe on the role of clusters & their impact
Feedback on common challenges & what needs to be done
in the next generation of regional, national and EU cluster initiatives.
Support to any national, regional and local cluster event that is:
- organised by cluster stakeholders or
- organised around 'cluster' topic/a specific topic closely related to it
Call for application for organisations wishing to host national/regional cluster events
under #EUClusterWeeks between 11/2018 – 04/2019
All the events on

11. Have your say about cluster-related policy developments at EU, national and regional level & discuss about hot topics (digitalisation, skills gap, circular Europe, shared value & social impact)
Listen to feedback from EU Cluster Weeks events & comment on current/upcoming challenges & opportunities
Team up with others by networking during the conference & engaging in the pre-conference EU matchmaking event.
Cluster Award ceremony for:
• EU Cluster Manager 2019
• European Strategic Cluster Partnership for Smart Specialisation Investments (ESCP-S3)
• European Strategic Cluster Partnerships – Going International (ESCPs-4i)
• Innosup-1 partnerships
Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

12. Towards Joint Cluster Initiatives
- Industry-focused actions guided by joint strategies of specialised SME intermediaries
- Thematically targeted, with cross-regional and cross-sectoral outreach to SMEs
- Channelling scale-up support to groups of SMEs to boost industrial transformation
Building EU value chains, industrial modernisation & capacity building
Skills upgrading,
talent attraction & entrepreneurship acceleration
Boosting internationalisation
& access to
global value chains

13. Thank you for your attention
More information
EU Cluster Portal:
European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP)
European Strategic Cluster Partnerships for Going International
ECCP Cluster Matchmaking Events
@Clusters_EU
COSME calls
European Cluster Conference 2019
Thank you for your attention