Press Release

The third cluster manager training of the DanuBioValNet project, held in June in Opatija, Croatia, delivered several interesting conclusions and recommendations. The main topic of the training was related to the development of new cluster services that could support the internationalisation of clusters. After several interesting presentations, the Cluster Tool Box was presented and the participants had the opportunity to learn about best practices from different project partners and clusters in the Danube Region.

The training ended with the discussion about cluster internationalisation as the main challenge of the European clusters in the future period. The participants (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and the Czech Republic) came to the several common issues and challenges and delivered following conclusions and recommendations:

1. Companies' access to new markets and knowledge should be supported by clusters. In long-term, this requires new partnerships among different stakeholders related to the market knowledge but also to the development of new products and services. In order to provide this kind of support, clusters need more support from their own governments, especially in terms of financing those activities.

2. There is a big problem on the whole market which is related to the cluster definition. There are many organizations that call themselves "cluster" and they are actually only organizations or associations. The clear line should be drawn on the European level, and some firm criteria should be established so that governments could be able to support "real clusters" in a right way.

3. The further challenge, that is especially recognizable in the Southeast European Region, is the mix-up with the NACE codes. There are many companies that register under several different codes and operate in some totally different business. This causes problems for the clusters to identify possible members, and it lingers the collaboration possibilities in general.

4. Impact-oriented cluster activities should be supported, especially in terms of internationalisation. It is not enough to create the strategies, but the clusters should provide improved frameworks for pilot projects that are directly linked to the companies. In this way, companies accept better cluster activities and actually have a need to be part of it as an active member.

Therefore, projects like the DanuBioValNet are needed. The main focus of the project is how to develop some new value-chains that will support the competitiveness of the European companies, and clusters, as linkages between all relevant stakeholders, are one of the important regional innovation system stakeholders, especially when it comes to cross-sectoral collaboration.

Author: Croatian Wood Cluster, Croatia