AlpClusters2020 European UnionEuropean Regional Development Fund

Alpclusters 2020 is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund

Policy Recommendation Booklet

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.

Released on December 2014

Summary

4 Foreword5 AlpClusters20206 Introduction9 To prove the effectiveness of transnational cluster

networks15 To foster companies toward internationalisation23 To encourage the emerging of new sectors31 To remove policy barriers hindering clusters transnational

cooperation41 To feed and sustain transnational networks

Foreword

As the rest of Europe, the Alpine Space area is being severely affected by the economic crisis and the helplessness of SMEs in front of a stuck internal market and harsh extra-EU competitors.

Dealing with a regional economy largely based on manufacturing SMEs, clusters have been identified as a potential driver to strengthen companies competitiveness and reinforce their international position.

From the policy makers point of view, as also stated by the European Commission (Communication “For a European Industrial Renaissance”, 2014), it is an asset supporting “the matchmaking of SMEs wishing to integrate into world-class clusters aiming for excellence and cross-European value chains”.

Moreover the focus would not be limited “to industrial sectors, but on facilitating cross-sectorial and cross-border collaboration and innovation”.

Nonetheless, when approaching such cross-border clusters, poor awareness and the potential lack of self-sustainability are indeed real barriers. Thus policy makers are first challenged with acknowledging the added value of transnational cooperation and then they are supposed to look for the synergic use of the existing programmes or the deployment of new supporting schemes.

AlpClusters 2020 aimed to give a contribution to this framework, treasuring the lessons learnt in previous funded projects in proposals, debated and validated by the interested stakeholders, and now summarised in this booklet.

AlpClusters2020

AlpClusters2020

AlpClusters2020 is a capitalisation project supported by the Alpine Space Programme 2007 – 2013 which aims to contribute to the design of an integrated and synergic policy approach for the support of transnational clusters networks at Alpine space level.

To reach its aim, AlpClusters2020 has:

1. explored how transnational clusters can foster and accelerate SMEs internationalisation in order to facilitate the emergence of new industries, enhancing the resilience of the Alpine industrial ecosystem.

2. tracked and valorised the achievements of previously supported initiatives, assessing the impact of pilots and deliverables funded especially under the Alpine Space Programme.

3. animated an intense participatory process through which private and public relevant actors could express their needs and take part in the design of future actions.

4. supported the policy development process, exploring the potential synergies and suggesting joint feasible actions paving the way for a fine-tuned and shared strategy for 2014-2020.

AlpClusters2020 was coordinated by Veneto Innovazione S.p.A.

More information are available at http://alpclusters2020.eu.

Introduction

The booklet purpose is to present the recommendations and the suggestions resulting from the project to all the actors who are interested in the improvement of the future cluster policies.

It targets especially the authorities managing the Alpine Space Programme and the local policy makers who are in charge of designing and supporting future interventions in this field; however, the recommendations can be interesting also for cluster and business representatives who want to play a role in the definition of future strategies, for instance by taking part to cooperation projects. For each recommendation, a more detailed explanation can be found in the document “Alpine Space Action Plan” available at http://alpclusters2020.eu.

Boosting innovative clusters’ networking in the Alpine Space area

NEED HOW RECOMMENDATIONSTo prove the effectiveness of transnational cluster networks

• Involving directly companies into projects is a must to improve business competitiveness

• SHOWCASES are useful tool to demonstrate the concrete effectiveness of the outcomes

1. Explore different “soft” mechanisms to involve more the business side into projects

2. Launch specific calls for proposals as showcases and demonstrators

To foster companies toward internationalisation

• Increase the technical skills of companies through coorganised international training is a first step toward internationalisation

• Building valuable networks need interactive moments to know each other and exchange the mutual interests

• A cluster joint strategy is the basis to plan common actions

3. Use cluster networks to co-organise training

4. Foster interaction through structured events

5. Foster the setting up of Joint Cluster Action Plans

To encourage the emerging of new sectors

Clusters in creative sectors could boost innovation in traditional clusters and in the public sector as well as cross-fertilisation whether transnational cooperation is exploited

6. Foster the use of living Labs7. Sustain the generation of new

ideas through clusters8. Foster the cross fertilization

among public and private through gamification

To remove policy barriers hindering clusters transnational cooperation

The policy level should be more involved to translate practices into policies. Moreover cluster policies should be shared and compared to syncronise incentives at transnational level.

9. Involve the policy side, starting from the territory

10. Involve policy experts with specific project tasks

11. Foster the use of Peer Review as a policy learning method

12. Launch tandem to accelerate the development of effective cluster

To feed and sustain transnational networks

After transnational networks have tested successfully pilots and practices, there is still the need to guarantee their future sustainability or to plan further actions to enlarge the potential impact.

13. Plan outputs that can produce revenues

14. Support in finding funding synergies

15. Follow up for most promising initiatives

16. Launch joint funding schemes

To prove the effectiveness of

transnational cluster networks

11

Companies should be directly involved into project activities to concretely test actions and tools and stimulate other companies to follow the same steps. Different strategies at program and project level could increase their participation.

It is advisable, for instance, to foster the business side participation, putting more emphasis on this requirement in the eligibility criteria and/or in the project evaluation phase and boosting applicants to include pilot actions involving companies as external partners with the possibilities for the latest to be paid for their activities.

Project partners can provide to companies soft incentives (even not monetary) such as free trainings, consultancy, visibility to foster companies participation, especially if activities are not perceived by SMEs as concrete (such as participation to workshop, surveys, interviews…).

Explore different “soft” mechanisms to involve more the business side into projects

13

Special calls could be launched to sustain a limited number of “demonstrator projects”. For these specific calls for proposals, pre-financing could be allowed and even associated with a lower contribution rate, though not impacting the state aid rules.

Demonstrators could have the aim to explore and prove the potentiality of ambitious actions like transnational cooperation of metaclusters. They could collect both policy and practical experiences in conducting pilot activities (e.g. the creation of a collective brand or transnational cofounding) as inputs for the local policy making.

Launch specific calls for proposals as showcases and demonstrators

To foster companies toward

internationalisation

17

Cluster networks could successfully co-organize transnational training paths. This action works well especially for clusters that have already shared their strategy and for training related to technical and technological matters.

Each cluster put at disposal its specific competences (and experts) so that a rich and valuable training path is offered to members, valorizing synergies and complementarities, even lowering the organizational costs.

Co-organized training is a self-sustaining action because, after a trial period, companies perceive this opportunity as close to their needs, and are thus keener to financially sustain it.

Use cluster networks to co-organise training

19

To boost international cooperation, strong networks are needed. Well structured events are useful tools to facilitate companies (and clusters) contact and foster the mutual matchmaking.

Since companies do not always perceive such events as valuable and rarely are eager to participate, the format should be very well structured, the goals (and the concrete benefits) should be clear and the participants have to share the same interests.

Good examples are formats like JamBite (http://www.jam-bite.eu/) for SMEs willing to cooperate internationally in the energy efficiency and sustainable mobility field, WorldCafè (http://www.theworldcafe.com/) useful for intermediaries that have to deeply discuss local strategy improvements, Enterprise Europe Network events (http://een.ec.europa.eu/tools/services/EVE/Event/ListEvents) for companies interested in technological and commercial cooperation.

Foster interaction through structured events

21

To properly work together at transnational level, clusters first need to know their mutual competences and then to design a joint and focalized action plan. Moreover, this planning phase is essential to guarantee the sustainability of transnational clusters and ensure the effectiveness of the following pilot activities.

A mechanism that could be inspiring is the one applied in the EU funded initiative Regions of Knowledge, a program launched in the frame of FP7 and meant to strengthen the research potential of European regions, encouraging and supporting the development of regional ‘research-driven clusters.

The initiative foresaw a double step process: first an in-depth analysis of the gaps and potentialities of the clusters involved (in the frame of their regional development policies) and then the design (and implementation) of a joint action plan. Regions of knowledge did not financially support the implementation phase of the joint action plans.

Interreg Europe, in the new programming phase, will “borrow” the mechanism used in Regions of Knowledge to foster regional stakeholders to tackle the policy exchange through a similar double step process.

Foster the setting up of Joint Cluster Action Plans

To encourage the emerging of new

sectors

25

Living labs can facilitate new ways to generate innovation since they turn partners and end-users, from observed subjects, into valuable contributors to the co-creation and exploration of emerging ideas, breakthrough scenarios, innovative concepts and related artifacts. Networks and clusters are the best structures to manage the process since they allow to pull multiple competences together from business and research side.

Living labs are often useful even to close the gap between industry and academia, since they could work as a piloting environment, allowing proof of concept data for marketing, and acting as a door opener to new business sectors.

Moreover the potentialities of living labs can be exploited at transnational level, both valorizing the different competences as well as extending the range of potential users. Anyway, managing the close cooperation needed to conduct a transnational living lab is a complex process; putting together cross-border networks and clusters would be thus advisable.

With their low awareness and high experimental value, innovation labs are still good topics for pilot projects submitted under the Alpine Space Programme or even funded by synchronized/joint cofounding mechanisms.

Foster the use of living Labs

27

Launching initiatives to sustain the generation of new companies, especially in the creative industry, is a win-win mechanism because business in traditional sectors can benefit from the emergence of new ideas (also coming from neighboring regions), while young entrepreneurs could receive free coaching and potential investment by established business.

See for instance Creative Camp, (www.ccalps.eu/creative-camp-2014/) an initiative aimed to support wannabe entrepreneurs to put into the market their creative ideas in the field of multimedia (applied to culture and tourism), fashion and design.

After a selection process, the winners are supported by a network of experts that backed the process till the creation of a prototype (or a proof of concept). The network consists of companies (both in traditional and advanced industries) local institutions and research centers that can provide expertise and potential investments. This network started as local but has been then extended at transnational level (Alpine Space area).

It would be recommended to foster the setting up of these initiatives that could be managed by specialized intermediaries (such as innovation agencies or business/academic incubators) but that would probably need to be backed by local governments (through ESI or national funds). The transnational value lies in the broader extension of the network and could be built in the frame of an ASP project, but should then be sustained through agreements after the project end.

Sustain the generation of new ideas through clusters

29

Gamification is a new sector in expansion. Learning by playing is the core assessment. By playing, the user often does not even realize that he/she is learning. From storytelling to creative visuals, gaming is a powerful tool to train, entertain, improve users engagement and even test potential product scenarios. It would be recommended to boost the cross-fertilisation among the public sector, research and business through gamification.

Games can be used in different sectors, even if education can be the most promising one.For instance the project SILMAS produced an online game (www.lake-adventures.com/) for children from 5 to 15 years to increase their awareness about the main problems of the lake environments. The project was managed by public institutions, research centres and specialized companies so that their different competences (i.e. regulations, scientific information, multimedia) were pulled together, even at transnational level, to design a professional 3D game.

More than experiencing new innovative services/products, it could contribute to explore new public-private partnerships, foster the setting up of new business networks (in emerging sectors like multimedia) and enlarging those networks at transnational level to valorized the specific know-how spread in the Alpine Space area. Gamification has still a low awareness, especially in the public sector. It would be useful to have more pilots and produce more showcases. The objective 1b.2 (increase capacities for the delivery of services of general interest in a changing society) and the objective 11.1 (Increase the application of multilevel and transnational governance in the Alpine Space) of the new Alpine Space Programme could be a proper context.

Foster the cross fertilization among public and private through gamification

To remove policy barriers

hindering clusters transnational

cooperation

33

It often appears that winning and very popular solutions to boost cluster cooperation (e.g. joint funding) are not taken ahead due to the low backing from policy makers. Territorial platforms including decision makers have proved to be rather effective. Policy makers are more sensitive if the political discussion is rooted in the territory with local stakeholders, including business representatives.

More than a mere financial support, partners often need harmonized policies and local funding schemes apt to international cooperation (e.g. possibility to cover expenses for matchmaking events).

A useful mechanism is the setting up of Regional Operation Committees (ROC), local committees established by putting together the proper decision makers (e.g. Regional Directorate for Research and Innovation) and the potential beneficiaries (e.g. cluster managers, SMEs). ROC are strongly focalized, meet periodically to discuss the project outcomes and, with a participative logic, decide how to mainstream the project outcomes in the local economical strategy. See for instance the ROC of CABEE (cabee.regio-v.at/)

Involve the policy side, starting from the territory

35

Another way that has proved to be successful to transfer practices into policies, is the involvement of experts or delegates (i.e. policy officers) appointed by policy makers and called for very specific activities and goals that they have to reach together.

An interesting experience is the TACTICS reflection group (www.eca-tactics.eu/eca/page/presentation-reflection-group ) a team (external to the project) composed by 14 European policymakers, or appointed experts, who had the goal to define which policy actions and incentives are effective for clusters cooperation.

The group was structured into task forces on various cluster policy issues such as fostering international cluster cooperation, channeling R&D funding through excellent clusters, user-driven excellent clusters, supporting cluster marketing and branding, evaluating cluster excellence, supporting clusters in emerging industries.

The roadmap of the process was the same for all the taskforces: after an analytical phase performed by the project partners, two meetings (for each task force) were held, one to check which policy schemes were already in place in the respective regions/countries and one focused on what would be better applicable/feasible to improve future policies.

Involve policy experts with specific project tasks

37

The benchmarking and comparison of public policies at transnational level is one important step to synchronize and improve schemes supporting internationalization and competitiveness. Some projects have proved that Peer Review is a good structured methodology to improve regional policies.

An host region/area allows a specific policy or a group of policies to be appraised by a group of other regions (peers). Peer review includes meetings and in site visits in order to see how the policy works in the specific contexts.

The report released by the peer regions could be an useful base for the host region to revise the ongoing policies and set up a structured implementation plan for future improvements. Peer Review is also a good methodology to be suggested in the frame of the objective 11.1 – Increase the application of multilevel and transnational governance in the Alpine Space – of the next Alpine Space Programme.

Foster the use of Peer Review as a policy learning method

39

Tandems have been used in some EU projects as an efficient tool to favour exchange and cooperation. They can either merge two regions around the same issue or problem and create a mutual collaboration to tackle it, or be used to establish mentoring processes. This tool can be particularly helpful for regions without a cluster strategy or whose previous cluster policies were unsuccessful. In these cases, regions can partner with other regions who have successful policies already in place and be mentored in the process of defining tailored strategies.

As an example, in the project Mini Europe (interreg-minieurope.com/) tandems were set up around good practices: one partner exporting a good practice combined with a partner importing it. Through these bilateral transfers of knowledge, methods and experienced of the different partners are capitalized and unified, so as to substantially improve their performance.

Concretely, the Hungarian partner who did not have policies for internationalisation, was able to develop an effective strategy within only 6 months by importing good practices from other two partner regions. In the Alpine Space Programme, tandems were used within the project COMUNIS (www.comunis.eu/) and involved also companies in an informal way.

Launch tandem to accelerate the development of effective cluster policies

To feed and sustain

transnational networks

43

To guarantee the sustainability of project outcomes, these results should be planned, since the beginning, as services or products that may produce revenues, including also the identification of the proper business model and of the possible actors that will take over the business after the project end.

In this sense, business actors (such as clusters or companies) that already know the market and have the competences to professionally develop the outputs are probably the best partners to be included since the project design.

This would also accelerate the results promotion since well-defined, concrete and saleable outputs can be easily translated in clear and immediate showcases.

Nonetheless it is important always to take into account the State Aid and IPR regulations. In the new Alpine Space Programme the objective 1b.2 – Increase capacities for the delivery of services of general interest in a changing society, could be the right frame for testing such results-oriented projects.

Plan outputs that can produce revenues

45

It would be recommended to dedicate, at least in the last phase of the project, several efforts in identifying possible complementarities among the project topics and other EU funded programmes (e.g. Horizon 2020) in order to develop parallel or follow up projects, building on each other. This would foster the sustainability of successful pilots, tested in the frame of the Alpine Space Programme, extending and maximizing their potential impact.

Clusters are excellent instruments for channelling innovation support to SMEs in a more efficient way. Through clusters, in fact, a critical mass of SMEs is reached and it is easier to plan projects based on specific priorities (in the frame of the cluster strategic plans), reducing the funds fragmentation.

In this sense clusters become even a good vehicle for policy makers to foster the funds synchronization: at the beginning, in the phase of local policy design, to have insights about needs and potentialities of the business context and afterwards to act as guidance to their members to raise the awareness and inform about the different opportunities offered by the local and the EU funded programmes.

Support in finding funding synergies

47

In some cases the ideal project duration would be up to 5 years but, instead of a general extension of the project life, it would be recommended to foresee a special type of projects, with a recognised high relevance in terms of possible impact, that could be built on previous already funded projects.

These projects could be funded either at local or at transnational level.

For instance, a similar mechanism was implemented in the Interreg IV C Programme with the “Capitalisation Projects”, special interregional cooperation projects, focused on the transfer of good practices previously developed and selected because of their high mainstream potential in the Structural Funds programmes in the participating regions.

Follow up for most promising initiatives

49

The setting up of a joint funding scheme to support cluster international cooperation could concretely be put in place using an ERANET like mechanism: a “virtual common pot” that synchronises the different funding instruments working in each partner region/area and directed to support SMEs networks and clusters competitiveness.

In 2006 such an instrument has been already developed and tested in the frame of INNET project (www.eca-tactics.eu/tactics/page/overview-call-0) and further used by the BSR Stars, a flagship programme embedded in the Baltic Sea macro regional strategy.

In the frame of BSR Innovation Express (www.bsrstars.se/project/bsr-innovation-express/), joint transnational (in the area of the Baltic Sea) clusters projects are funded with the aim of supporting the internationalisation of SMEs through cluster initiatives.

Since the need to share goals and procedures, as well as to fine-tune the local instruments is really a political issue, it would be recommended to launch a joint funding scheme if the policy decision makers have already worked together (e.g. in an Alpine Space project) to benchmark their mutual policies and commit on common goals. The joint funding scheme mechanism is also useful in the view of building an Alpine Macro regional strategy.

Launch joint funding schemes

Partnership The following partner organisation have contributed to the project outputs on which this booklet is based:

Veneto Innovazione SpA Dep. European Policies (IT)www.venetoinnovazione.it

Upper Austrian Technology and Marketing Ltd (AT)www.tmg.at

PÔLE SCIENTIFIQUE ET TECHOLOGIQUE du Canton de Fribourg (CH) www.pst-fr.ch

Regione Piemonte - Directorate of Industry and Productive Activities (IT)www.regione.piemonte.it/industria

Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum der Steinbeis Innovation GmbH (DE)www.steinbeis-europe.de

CONSORZIO PER LA PROMOZIONE DELLA CULTURA PLASTICA (IT)www.proplast.it

Plastipolis (FR) www.plastipolis.fr

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