Clusters driving the Green and Digital Transitions event recap
The Cluster Policy Learning and Capacity Building event on ‘Clusters driving the Green and Digital transitions’, organised by the EISMEA, the European Commission and the Ile de France Region took place this 22-23 November 2021 in Paris and online.
The event brought together the members of the EU Expert Group on Clusters, cluster organisations and policymakers from the EU Member States.
The morning started with some opening remarks from Mr Marek Przeor, Team Leader Cluster Policy at DG GROW, Ms Ulla Engelmann, Acting Director of the Networks and Governance Directorate at DG GROW, and Ms Luisa Prista, Head of Department Innovation ecosystems, SMP/Entrepreneurship & Consumers at EISMEA. The kick-off conference then presented the EU Expert Group on Clusters’ key recommendations for leveraging clusters for a greener, more digital and resilient EU economy outlined in the Expert Group’s Recommendation Report, followed by a presentation of current state of the Policy Toolkit.
Physical and online participants could participate in a series of panel discussions and capacity-building sessions on key issues such as:
- Clusters and the circular economy
- Cluster business models fit for accelerating the twin transitions
- Implementing 4.0: priorities at local level
- Financing the twin transitions through clusters
Finally, four site visits were organised by the Ile-de-France region for physical participants to visit local circular economy initiatives.
Clusters and policymakers got inspiring ideas to develop their ongoing work on how to implement the EU Expert Group on Clusters’ recommendations, and came back with relevant customised policy and capacity building takeaways on the green and digital transitions.
The event was followed with a half-day Partnering-side event for the European Strategic Cluster Partnerships for Excellence (ESCP-4x), where ESCP-4x cluster organisations discussed the main takeaways from the past two years of the ESCP-4x programme and attended a training on ‘Bold strategies for cluster collaboration in changing times’, moderated by Ms Bianca Dragomir (AVAESEN cluster, Founder of the CAP - Cluster Acceleration Programme).
You can find the presentations from the event here.
You can find the Input paper here and the Output paper here.
