Association of Industrial Automation of Ukraine (APPAU) issued the final report of ClusteRISE project. This the 1st project in Ukraine in the consistent development of innovative industrial high tech clusters driven by the concept EAM (Engineering – Automation – Machinery). It has a long pre-history since 2016, when the APPAU began trying to change the state of the IAM actors’ association in several regions of Ukraine. The project, supported by the European Union and the Government of Germany, aimed at supporting and developing 2 EAM clusters in the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv, and lasted from August 2020 to November 2021.
The project plan was based on the principles of the EAM cluster concept, which provides for the implementation of 3 key components in cluster organizations – Smart Organization, Smart Product and Smart Export. The plan also takes into account the provisions of the draft National Cluster Development Strategy of September 2020. In general, the project plan has been successfully implemented, and in some places – over fulfilled due to new initiatives of cluster participants. Instead, the defined criteria for project success, such as the number of participants in cluster organizations, the ability to maintain management and the growth of export performance, are unfulfilled. The main obstacles are the underestimation of the complexity and scope of the tasks of consolidation and unification of participants in regional communities, the difficulties in implementing an effective management system in cluster organizations. However, the final findings point to a number of other positive outcomes, such as major changes in the region’s innovation ecosystems (which are the basis for Smart Product), a slow but gradual rapprochement with regional authorities and a strong impact on cluster movement in Ukraine. No directly but significantly, ClusteRISE has impacted on the rise of other clusters of similar type in Kyiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Mykolaiv.
The project also offered a number of methodological developments and best practices available for dissemination and application by other similar clusters in Ukraine.
Thus, the ClusteRISE project can be considered quite successful, both in terms of the viability of new cluster organizations in the regions and in the context of the impact on the national level.