European industrial clusters coordinate their resources to fight COVID-19

Submitted by Alina Danieles… on 18 March 2020

Brussels, 18 March 2020. In light of the coronavirus crisis, Europe is mobilising all its powers to coordinate the national responses to fight COVID-19, to reinforce the public health sectors of the Member States and to support the economy. Therefore, the European Clusters Alliance (ECA), as the representative of 13 national cluster associations, has offered its support, its networks and resources to the European Commission to connect the governments with their innovative ecosystems, including SMEs, large companies, technological centers and universities, to meet the urgent need of masks and respiratory ventilators in hospitals.

Industrial clusters play an important role by bringing together the capacities of the companies and the necessities of the governments to join forces. The ECA is in close contact with the European Commission, to coordinate its actions.

The first concrete initiative has been to elaborate a map of European resources on 3D printing put voluntarily at the disposal of the European Commission and of the different countries, which would facilitate the manufacturing of the needed goods by using 3D printers all over Europe.

The ECA´s effort is already bearing fruits. Yesterday in Spain, more than 120 clusters representing different industries and regions from all over the country participated in a video conference to distribute the initiative to 3D-print the needed mask and ventilators for the health systems, to consult about further common action to help the local SMEs and to coordinate their activities in both short and long term. The meeting was attended by representatives of both the European Commission and the Spanish Ministry of Industry.

The 3D capacity map in Spain has now more than 100 volunteering companies identified, adding more than 1,000 printers available.

The European Clusters Alliance will keep up its work to offer the capacities of its ecosystems to the respective European and national institutions. The Alliance was launched in 2019. It is a bottom-up initiative that gathers 13 national cluster associations and represents more than 740 clusters altogether, of the 965 European clusters officially registered in the European Cluster Collaboration Platform. Its main mission is to promote the inter-cluster collaboration at international level.

For more information, contact the Board of Directors: Antonio Novo Guerrero, President European Clusters Alliance +34 650 410 080antonio.novo [at] clustersalliance.eu

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