Where is the role of clusters in the Smart Specialisation Concept seen?

Inmaculada Periañez Forte

II Congreso Nacional Clusters

Zaragoza, 18/09/2014

Index

• 1. What do we refer to by clusters?

• 2. How do cluster function?

• 3. Why are clusters important?

• 4. Where is the role of clusters in the Smart Specialisation Concept seen?

• 5. How can the S3P contribute to the clusters success?

1. What do we refer to by clusters?

• Clusters: Are geographic concentrations of• interconnected companies, specialised suppliers,

service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions in particular fields that compete but also co-operate (Porter).

• Research Intensive Clusters: Research intensive clusters are nascent centres involving more than one research centres and one or more firms (i.e. platforms for long-term research cooperation between science and industry).

What do we refer to by clusters?

Examples

The Micro-nanotechnology Cluster of Grenoble, France

The High-tech Cluster of Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

The Biotechnology Cluster of Vienna, Austria

The Life Science Cluster of Medicon Valley, Scandinavia

The Engineering Cluster of Dunedin, New Zealand

The ICT Cluster of Waterloo, Canada

2. How do clusters function?

How do clusters function?

• Division of labour in the labour market • Enables firms to obtain specialised labour with lower

search and training costs and higher productivity • Enables workers to obtain higher wages and increased

opportunities to specialise and move firms.

• Division of labour in intermediate supplier industries• Provides customer firms with local access to

specialised suppliers of materials and components, finance, marketing and business services and so on.

How do clusters function?

• Knowledge spillovers: • Such as transfers of knowledge of market

opportunities and technologies among agents in the various firms and research organisations located within clusters through a range of formal and informal links.

• Identifying new business opportunities based on a combination of multi-disciplinary exchange of knowledge.

3. Why are clusters important?

Why are clusters important?

• Economic benefits:

• Higher competitive and productivity environment: generating new firms and firm expansions, increasing the size of the cluster and strengthening the productivity benefits.

• Increased productivity, increased wages and profits or price competitiveness of local enterprises.

Why are clusters important?

• Political interest. Policy intervention may stimulate growth in clusters by:

• Providing information to potentially mobile firms and workers on cluster locations and specialisations.

• Offering incentives for investment in clusters and supporting the provision of housing, business premises and other infrastructure in clusters.

• Overall, providing good framework conditions and creating a good enviroment.

Why are clusters important?

• Clusters and the economic crisis:• Destruction of firms and jobs.• Severe budgetary constrains.• Increasing the difficulty to access to finance.

• Places pressure on policy makers to make the best decisions about investments:• To improve the competitive environment in clusters.• To lay the foundations for future economic and

employment growth.

Cluster development support policies and specialisation patterns in selected OECD countries 2012

4. Where is the role of clusters in the Smart Specialisation

Concept seen?

15

•Smart specialisation

•Behavioural change

•Growth and jobs

How to start entrepreneurial

discovery processKick-start with consultation in quadruple helix:

Detect potential boundary-spanners between different stakeholder / interest groups, new innovative entrepreneurs, hidden champions, or persons with a potential for this is one of the aims of this first step. …

See new annex III of RIS3 Guide

Businessmanufacturing and

services, primary sectors, financial sector, creative industries, social sector,

large firms, SMEs, young entrepreneurs, students with business

ideas, cluster and business organisations,

Research & education

public and private research bodies,

universities, education and training, science and

technology parks, Technology transfer

offices, etc.

if relevant at different government levels,

agencies e.g. for regional development,

business advice, public procurement

offices, incubators, etc.

Public administratio

n

NGOs and citizens’ initiatives related to

societal challenges for which innovative

solutions would be helpful, consumers

associations, Talents! etc.

Civil society / Users

5. How can the S3P contribute to the clusters success?

EU Countries registered: 14EU Regions registered 151Non-EU Regions registered: 2

Launched in June 2011

Designed to assist regions and countries in developing RIS3

Managed by JRC-IPTS in Seville

Monitored by a Steering Team incl. DG REGIO, DG CONNECT, RTD, ENTR, EAC, AGRI

19

Main activities of S3 Platform in support of the countries/regions preparing RIS3

2. Trans-national learning, Peer Review &

thematic workshops

4. RIS3 assessmentand support to REGIO

desks ; ICT experts

3. Country- and Macro-region events and

targeted seminars at IPTS

6. Interactive tools, S3 Newsletter and Website

1. The RIS3methodological

Guide & the Digital Agenda Toolbox

5. Transregional collaboration

7. Research agendaEye@RIS3

20

A) S3 Peer Review workshops

1. Workshop in Riga (Feb 2014) NATIONAL2. Workshop in Novi Sad (April 2014)3. Workshop in Portoroz (May 2014) NATIONAL4. Workshop in Dublin (July 2014) NATIONAL

Meetings and networking

B) Thematic workshops

1. Sparsely populated areas (June, 2014)2. Workshop in Lodz (September 2014)3. Digital Growth and Smart Specialisation (Lodz,

September 2014)4. Entrepreneurial discovery process (Pisa, September

2014)

Very different in structure, attendance, focus Targeting RIS3 actors, methodology, common priorities, common regional features

A) Eye@RIS3 – an online database for RIS3 priorities

• Enable Regions and Member States to position themselves,

• To find their unique niches

• To seek out potential partners for collaboration

• Categories are not perfect matches

• Approx 130 regions and 800 priorities

B) Benchmarking regional structure

• To find reference regions those that share similar structural conditions relevant for innovation-driven development.

Online tools

Gracias!

http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Inmaculada.PERIANEZ-FORTE@ec.europa.eu

Sources:

Where is the role of clusters in the Smart Specialisation Concept seen? JRC, IPTS (17/2/2014)

Clusters, Innovation and entrepreneurship (OECD, 2009)