Success stories

Hear success stories from members across the ECCP community and how they benefitted from using our service.

Cluster Mentality (reflections from 2 years as EU Cluster Manger of the Year 2014)

Submitted by Lucia Seel on 04 October 2016.

Dr Stan Higgins EU Cluster Manager of the Year 2014 reflects on his findings while meeting clusters from around the world during the last 2 years: Many have concluded, and I quote, that “Clusters are the key organizational unit for understanding and improving the performance of regional economies. The foundation of a regional economy is a group of clusters, not a collection of unrelated firms.”...

International Mission of Catalonia Cluster Managers, Korea 2016

Submitted by Camille DURAN on 07 June 2016.

Catalonia was a pioneer country in terms of cluster policy, starting at 1992. Since then, there’s been a continuous cluster policy for more than 2 decades. One of the main takeaways of this long cluster experience is that cluster managers are a key success factor in a cluster initiative. It’s not only about their background and skills, but also about dedication and motivation. A decade has passed...

Award for the Klaster poljomehanizacije (Agricultural Equipment Cluster) on the XIX National Counselling on Economy and Entrepreneurship

Submitted by Alina Danieles… on 10 May 2016.

After the award for the best cluster and the best cluster manager in 2011, Agricultural Equipment Cluster and its cluster manager were awarded as the best cluster and cluster manager in Croatia by the Croatian Government and the Ministry of of Entrepreneurship and Crafts at the XIX National Counselling on Economy and Entrepreneurship which was held from April 16 -18, 2015 in Petrcane (Zadar)...

Inspiring EU-US direct cluster cooperation developed by Plastipolis, France

Submitted by Alina Danieles… on 06 May 2016.

Plastipolis took part in the EU-US cluster matchmaking event organized by ECCP on April 25th and 26th during Hannover Messe. It was a great opportunity to meet with US counterparts from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Kansas. The US have always been a priority for the cluster as this is a target country for most of its members. Plastipolis presented the results of this collaboration during...

NATIONAL AWARD FOR CLUSTER HOUSE DIRECTOR - DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND REGIONAL NETWORKING

Submitted by Alina Danieles… on 13 April 2016.

After the regional award for start-up and networking of clusters in Serbia and the Balkans in December 2015, Dr. Danka Milojkovic, Director of the Cluster House-Serbia and Director of the Global TCI Network BoD-Barcelona, is chosen for the prestigious national award "Captain Misa Anastasijevic". Dr. Milojković is awarded for contribution to the development of entrepreneurship and regional...

Submitted by Lucia Seel on 21 February 2016.

Initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, “go-cluster” is a cluster excellence programme that brings together the most productive and effective clusters in Germany. These clusters are vanguards of innovation and reflect Germany’s high level of expertise in numerous sectors and fields of technology. One of the programme’s stated objectives is to support the participating...

Submitted by Lucia Seel on 19 February 2016.

With its strong links woven over many years with Japan, TECHTERA wanted to develop its services through its first technology and trade mission in Tokyo, which was held from January 18 to 22, 2016. The topics covered concerned healthcare, welfare, senior citizens and sport. The six participating companies had discussions with the management of a private medical centre and were able to meet trade...

Dr Stan Higgins – Cluster Manager of the Year 2014

Submitted by ECCP Team on 11 February 2016.

Dr Higgins has over 45 years of experience in the chemistry based process industries in technical, commercial and leadership roles. He set up the NEPIC Cluster in 2003 and it now has over 700 participating members from the process industry supply chain based in NE England. Amongst many achievements that have resulted in Stan becoming “European Cluster Manger of the Year 2014” is that NEPIC is...

8 Romanian “Silver Clusters”

Submitted by ECCP Team on 11 February 2016.

As a result of the evaluation performed by the ESCA experts in the period November 2015 – January 2016, 8 Romanian cluster organisations were awarded the Silver Label of the European Cluster Excellence Initiative for cluster management: Transylvanian Furniture Cluster (North West Region), Agro Transylvania (North West Region), Indagro Pol (agricultural machinery – Region Bucharest Ilfov), Romanian...

Oekoenergie-Cluster (OEC) Success story

Submitted by ECCP Team on 19 January 2016.

Christiane Egger is the manager of the Oekoenergie-Cluster (OEC), the Sustainable Energy Cluster of Upper Austria. She is also deputy manager of the OÖ Energiesparverband, the energy agency of Upper Austria and conference director of the major annual international conference World Sustainable Energy Days. In 2014, Christiane Egger was a runner-up (second place) for the European Cluster Management...