Tightening the relationship with clusters from Eastern Partnership countries
On 14 December 2020, the ECCP was invited to present at the EU4Digital networking event featuring clusters from EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, namely Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Belarus. The EU4Digital Initiative is an EU initiative that aims a harmonising the digital markets of EaP countries with that of the European Union through the development of the digital economy and society and across six key policy areas: Telecom rules, Trust & Security, eTrade, ICT innovation, eHealth, and eSkills.
Focussing on the area of ICT Innovation, participants at the event discussed ways to organise and manage innovative clusters and cluster-like business networks in the area of ICT Innovation. The event attracted around 60 participants from 44 EaP organisations in IT- related sectors – representatives of business and professional associations, high-tech and techno parks, ministries, public agencies and other ecosystem actors from Eastern partner countries, as well as national Harmonising Digital Market (HDM) Coordinators, EU Delegations and members of the ICT innovation Expert network.
During the event, the ECCP gave a keynote speech about the overal value proposition of the platform and gave a detailed overview over the registration and validation process. Prior to the ECCP presentation, a representative from DG GROW gave insights into the European Commission's cluster and internationalisation policy. Finally, four cluster organisations from Ukraine (Precarpathian Eco-Energy Cluster, Association of Industrial Automation of Ukraine, and Kharkiv IT Cluster) and Romania (Cluj IT Cluster) presented their approach to increase their international visibility and establish a connection with other clusters in the EaP region and the EU.
The virtual networking event was targeted at cluster ecosystem organisations from Eastern partner countries, to facilitate their registration to the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) and deepen knowledge of clusters’ organisation and development. To access the presentations of participants and to read more about the event, please follow this link.
