The roundtable on “Clusters of Excellence, How they Boost Economy” organized by Cap Digital during Futur en Seine on 9 June in the framework of CECIL (a COSME EU project) gathered cluster experts from different countries: Marie Esnault-Bertrand (Director of Enterprises and Employment at Paris Region), Simone Hagenauer (Project Manager Clusters at Ecoplus the Business Agency of lower Austria and senior Gold label Assessor), Isabelle de Sutter (Head of European Affairs at Systematic Paris Region), Pierre Collin (Executive Manager at TWIST).

The session was moderated by a highly-qualified expert in cluster management Nicolai Sederberg Rottboll, Founder and CEO of Quercus Group, a Danish consulting firm specializing in advising on the development of clusters. The open format of the session allowed very interesting and impactful discussions within the panel and with the participants on the role of clusters, their impact on the economy, their future and the Excellence Labels.

The speakers stressed out the importance of developing topics that are relevant to the whole region and the collaboration of clusters on common European projects. Participants mentioned the need “to work towards the attractivity of the territories”: “If we work on the territory we are going to attract people and companies and then we will create value and this value will be distributed at a regional as well as a European level”. The need for clusters to help in creating jobs as well as connecting the Business with the Academic world was pointed out:  “Clusters have to bring together the academia and business industries, a cluster is the “translator” between the two industries”.

As for the value of the Cluster Management Excellence Label the participants believe that apart from the recognition it gives to clusters, it is also a valuable mean to “Get an idea of the competencies of your team and also gain visibility outside your region”.

Last but not least, the consortium focused on the necessity for clusters to cooperate, even if they have many structural differences between them, “Clusters are like SME’s you have to create them from the beginning step by step. There is no recipe of what and how a cluster should be.” However, the participants believe that “All clusters need to have a mutual obligation on clusters’ policies”.