19 February 2008
The creation, development and maintaining of vital and strong regional clusters has been seen to be an important goal of industry and science policies both in Finland and in the whole Europe during last 10-20 years. In the European level especially the sixth framework programme for the years 2002-2006 launched a range of projects related to clusters and innovation. However, there are some significant differences in the goals and means of national cluster policies between European countries. As well as, the structure of already existing clusters.
TSE Entre has participated in the European-wide European Cluster Observatory mapping. The mapping has been conducted to this extent now for the first time. The data draws a versatile picture of regional clusters, cluster organizations, and policy programmes promoting the process of regional and national cluster building and growth. A database has been created based on the mapping. The objective of the database is to inform policymakers, cluster practitioners and researchers about European clusters and cluster policies. TSE Entre has been responsible for the analysis and reporting of Finnish cluster policy.
The data which has been brought forth by a multinational team is in easily accessible form at:
www.clusterobservatory.eu. You can search for information about European clusters both by country or region and also by cluster categories. The results are presented in the form of tables and maps, which helps the comparison between regions and countries. Data can be exported as PDF or CSV format. National policies and on-going programmes are analyzed in separate reports, which are downloadable at Cluster Policies section.
The European Cluster Observatory is managed by the Center for Strategy and Competitiveness (CSC) at the Stockholm School of Economics, and it is financed by the European Commission under the Europe INNOVA programme. Oxford Research AS in Norway has been responsible for the coordination of the mapping of national cluster policies, organizations and programmes.
Additional information
Project researcher Satu Aaltonen, tel. (02) 481 4512, satu.aaltonen(a)tse.fi