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?
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).
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?
• Smart specialisation
• Behavioural change
• Growth and jobs
15
Business
manufacturing and
services, primary sectors,
financial sector, creative
industries, social sector,
large firms, SMEs,
young entrepreneurs,
students with business
ideas, cluster and business
organisations,
if relevant at different
government levels,
agencies e.g. for regional
development,
business advice,
public procurement
offices, incubators, etc.
Public
administration
Research
& education
public and private
research bodies,
universities, education
and training,
science and
technology parks,
Technology transfer
offices, etc.
NGOs and citizens’
initiatives related to
societal challenges for
which innovative
solutions would be
helpful, consumers
associations,
Talents! etc.
Civil society /
Users
How to start
entrepreneurial
discovery process
Kick-start with consultation in
quadruple helix:
Detect potential boundaryspanners 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
5. How can the S3P contribute
to the clusters success?

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
EU Countries registered: 14
EU Regions registered 151
Non-EU Regions registered: 2
Main activities of S3 Platform in support of the
countries/regions preparing RIS3
7. Research agenda
Eye@RIS3
1. The RIS3
methodological
Guide & the Digital
Agenda Toolbox
2. Trans-national
learning, Peer Review &
thematic workshops
6. Interactive tools, S3
Newsletter and Website
5. Transregional
collaboration
4. RIS3 assessment
and support to REGIO
desks ; ICT experts
3. Country- and Macroregion events and
targeted seminars at
IPTS
19
Meetings and networking
A) S3 Peer Review workshops
1.
2.
3.
4.
Workshop
Workshop
Workshop
Workshop
in
in
in
in
Riga
(Feb 2014) NATIONAL
Novi Sad (April 2014)
Portoroz (May 2014) NATIONAL
Dublin
(July 2014) NATIONAL
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
20
Online tools
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.
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)